Juliet Batten Books

As spring slowly advances, it's time to think about how you can shake off the ills of winter and gently regenerate.

If you have my book DWS, you might like to turn to chapter 8 and read about regeneration on the 3 levels: physical, psychological, and spiritual..

Here's a page from that chapter (153) to start you off.

A bright moment in Eden Garden last week. Magnolia petals dropping from the tree, lacing into the garden below where tulips are eagerly finding their way up into the light.

They seem happy to be together.

I wish you many bright moments today.

What are you noticing?

It's the end of 2010, and here I am on a new beach that is studded with treasures, playing in parallel with a small child, playing with surfaces and discovering unexpected depth.

And remembering early educators who wrote on the value of free play: John Holt 'How Children Learn', and C.A.Batt, ‘Hands off the child’, the book that inspired my mother in bringing up five creative children.

This 'Art in Nature Part 2' on Substack marks the beginning of two themes:

ONE: Free play, and what arises from it.

TWO: Some major disasters through 2010 and 2011 in Aotearoa, Australia, and Japan, and how creative play on the beach laid a foundation for ways to process my grief and shock, and send love to all those affected, through memorials and shrines.

If you are not already a subscriber, you can subscribe for free on the Substack page to follow the stories and images that are waiting in the wings to be rolled out.

Art in Nature: Playing with shells November 27, 2010 By playing with surfaces, I found depth.

Here's what I wrote in 2010 after celebrating First Light. The seasonal threshold was more gentle in 2010.

'Celebrating First Light, the festival of Brigid, with my dear women friends.

Milk is poured into a dark ‘well’ of water in a bowl, making swirls and clouds. I watch mesmerised at the simple magic that comes from a symbolic gesture made in sacred space.

I watch the milk of human kindness swirling into me, and the pure milk white of inspiration from the fire goddess.

Something quickens. Maybe creative kindling is not too far away now.

I am filled with the fragrance of daphne. I sense that I am crossing a threshold.'

Despite the winter chill, can you feel the stirring of new life, an inner quickening?

First light
new life
hope

First Light, Brigid, Imbolc, August 2:

This seasonal threshold is sometimes overlooked, but it has its own special quality, between winter solstice and spring equinox.

Read more in my lastest Seasons Newsletter.

Seasons Newsletter: Floating on the threshold First Light, Brigid, Imbolc, August 2: Do you remember learning to swim, and how it began with learning to float?

Can you remember what it was like to be eighteen?

Today my middle granddaugher turns eighteen, and today I'm remembering when I was that age — because coincidentally, today I'm launching my new Substack publication, LETTERS TO ANNE.

The years from eighteen to twenty were well captured because of these letters. They track a friendship between two of us who were parted when Anne's family left NZ to return to England. The letters give a glimpse of life in the 1960s where the context was very different from today and yet the issues are still similar.

Because of the letters, (which continued for decades) our friendship held strong and continues to this day. I hope the letters bring smiles to your face and prompt you to remember the time when you were young and seeking your way in life.

You can sign up for free to start reading. I begin with an introduction and will roll out the letters once I have twenty subscribers — so do tell your friends!

Letters to Anne: Introduction How a friendship grew from eighteen to eighties, all because of letter-writing

13 days to Imbolc/First Light/Brigid
August 2