Our Bodies & Our Seasons: From Dormancy to Spring 🌷

Thoughts on moving from winter into a lush and verdant time

Looking up at a recent spring sky

Hello, dear friends,

To those who are new here, welcome! You may have come here by way of a lovely newsletter — Regina Beach’s Creative Wellbeing, Amy’s

The Tonic

, or Tania’s

Mindful Walks In Paris

. I’m grateful to be in their company.

Odyssey of the Body has been quiet this spring because of an April poetry project — spotlighting 30 poets in 30 days! It was great fun! I’m back now and planning posts for you.

I’m thinking, among many sprouting thoughts, about how 6 in 10 people have a chronic illness, and how we manage those along with the rest of life.

I’m wondering about writing for you…

• 🔎 short primers of different illnesses

• 🩺 Q&As with experts

• 💗 Q&As with people who have figured out their way and are thriving

• 🧭 tips on navigating the health system

• 🔧 tools and routines that support us

• 🪩 odes to our body

• 📚 books with illuminating ideas

• 🌟 creative exercises to inspire us.

What do you want to read about? I’d love to know. Thank you in advance for taking this 8-question survey. Yes, yes, I want to hear from YOU! 💚

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We are in the peak of a lush spring here in the Hudson Valley. The green! The verdant green! It coats everything, as if a friendly giant threw a bucket of the brightest paint all over the trees.

A walk in the woods in the Hudson Valley this week

One of my favorite attributes of spring is how it bursts from the dead tinder of winter. For months upon months, the landscape is barren and icy. Trees appear to be wasted and gone.

And yet, drumroll — here comes life! 🌱 🌸 🌿 🌻 🥕

This fallow period has a name: dormancy. As the PennState Extension explains:

“Dormancy in trees is the time at which the tree is alive but not actively growing. It is during this time that the inner workings of a tree slow down and pause until conditions change to allow for productive growth. Unlike evergreen tree species, which can retain their foliage on account of adaptations, deciduous trees enter into dormancy to prevent the loss of water and nutrients and to avoid the damage cold temperatures produce.”

In other words, dormancy is protective.

I love this one phrase in particular: “the inner workings … slow down and pause until conditions change to allow for productive growth.”

Doesn’t that sound like a line to read twice and scribble down?

We all have dormant periods, stages of life in which our inner workings slow down and pause until conditions change.

Maybe we are hurt maybe sick, maybe stuck, maybe troubled, maybe stagnant. This is not abnormal. This is normal. This is part of the cycle of being alive. It is not just human. It is biological. It is life.

For those many of us with chronic illnesses, cycle can go (sometimes) go something like: worrisome symptoms, a flare-up, healing, dormancy, thriving.

We all wish for the longest possible season of thriving.

Sometimes it’s possible to stay in a lush season for years or even decades. Over time, we learn what works for us and what doesn’t. Sometimes we figure out how to notice signs and skip right over a flare-up to dormancy or healing.

We learn the hidden shortcuts through the seasons.

Here are two shortcuts I’ve learned over the years. So simple, so commonsense, and yet, while in the state of a body alarm, easy to forget!

• Sleep. As soon as any symptoms of any sickness come, sleep gets bumped up to the No. 1 priority level. Sleep is helpful for chronic illnesses and pop-up sicknesses. Recently I felt awful one day, with chills, headache, sudden exhaustion, likely some sort of virus. I went straight to bed at 6:30 p.m. and slept. I felt so much better when I woke. I know, not always possible. When I was a mom of a little one, sleeping 5 hours straight was a laughable proposition — I may have even been upset at a ridiculous suggestion of prioritizing sleep. I wish! But now it is possible. Life is constantly changing, and sometimes for the better.

• Call your healthcare team early. The medical system has many flaws, but doctors (and NPs and many healthcare professionals) still have tools that are unlike any others. It’s worth keeping your annual checkups even when you are in long periods of thriving, so that you have a lifeline when you need one. An established patient with fresh symptoms jumps the appointment queue over a new patient, who might have to wait months for an appointment, unfortunately. Call early when you start to have worrisome issues. It’s so tempting to tell yourself it will pass, it’s nothing, not worth calling yet — and wait and wait before seeking help. Better to make the appointment for 2 weeks from now and cancel if you are better, then wait 2 weeks, call, and have it be 2 more weeks before you see your doctor. I’ve learned this the hard way.

Do you have any shortcuts to a healing season?

How are you feeling this spring? (Or if you are in the southern hemisphere, autumn! And thank you for tolerating my off-season posts.)

I hope you have a sweet and lush weekend ahead.

To our journeys,
Brianne

p.s. Thank you again for answering the 8-question survey. It really helps steer me to what you’d like most. If you have any trouble with that link, I made a backup here. Thanks! 🌷

The loveliest flowers picked up from the farmers market today. Can you feel the spring sun?