Day 01 : Taking the First Step
Over the next ten days, I’ll be joining a group Trek as part of Labyrinth Library with Kening Zhu.
Here’s what I’m planning to devote myself to over the course of the next two weeks:
My Daily Trek Experiment : Sharing (something) daily in my Spiral Library.
The Deeper Intention : To expand my capacity to show up and be seen with devoted and intentional consistency. To build trust in my creative self expression, to develop and stay connected to the fluidity of my natural rhythm, and to practice being witnessed and without self abandoning in the process.
The Values I’m Anchoring Into : Gentleness, devotion, whole-self-honoring, presence, experimentation, connection
My Creative Menu of Things To Share (to be expanded as desired):
A poem
A watercolor painting
A photograph
A reminder to self
Reflections
Voice notes
Etc.
The wall of inspiration in front of my painting desk in my studio, where I hope to spend a little time each day.
A tiny painting from a few weeks ago.
May this experience feel like a gentle and supported daily practice of return to the expansive connection found in the creative center.
My free form thoughts on my idea for the trek:
I’m ready to practice showing up and being seen with devoted consistency. For much of my life, I’ve had a pattern, a strategy for keeping myself safe, that looked like showing up, then feeling afraid and activated, and then retreating to hide. It’s something I’ve done so subconsciously that I often didn’t realize it was happening.
When I did try to change it, I’d push myself to be consistent in a way that was disconnected from my body, my intuition, and my nervous system. I would keep showing up, ignore the discomfort, and try to push through it. Eventually, it became too much, and I would retreat again. Then I would judge myself for it, believing I wasn’t devoted, dedicated or consistent enough, or that I just couldn’t follow through.
What I want now is to expand my capacity to show up with my whole self. I want to honor the discomfort that arises and still continue to return, without abandoning myself in the process.
For this ten-day trek practice, I want to create a supportive container that allows me to show up daily in a grounded and nourishing way. Since I am happily not on social media and I have never found those spaces to work well for me short term or long term, I’ll use my website’s Spiral Library/Blog as the container for this practice. It feels like a safe middle ground between private and public, a place where I can share with a sense of being witnessed without feeling overly exposed.
Each day I’ll post something that feels nourishing or inspiring in the moment. It could be a poem, a watercolor painting, a photograph, a short reflection, a voice note, or even a page from my sketchbook. The focus is less on what I create and more on practicing presence and consistency.
Part of why I’m doing this is because I know I do well when I feel a sense of accountability and connection beyond myself. Sharing in this small, intentional way helps me feel part of a larger web of connection, and less alone in the creative process.
My hope is that this practice will help me build courage to be seen, to strengthen my sense of connection to others, and to feel more anchored and supported when I share in larger ways, like through my weekly letters. I often feel a big gap between my weekly email newsletters, which can make it feel jarring and vulnerable. My hope is that by showing up daily in this way, I’ll find a more natural rhythm of sharing and being seen with gentleness, devotion, and self-trust.
