No. 7 - A NEW DAY, A NEW DAWN, A NEW SEASON

A NEW DAY, A NEW DAWN, A NEW SEASON

March 19, 2025 • Issue No. 7

Good morning, beloveds!

I’m writing to you in a new season: spring! Today is the Vernal (or Spring) Equinox. After months of long nights and short days, today marks the moment when daytime and nighttime are in perfect balance. There’s only one other day like this each year (the Autumnal Equinox). In no time, we’ll be living our lives outside: beach days, summer picnics, and laughter by starlight. And, if we make a few preparations, we can boost our happiness when the sun is in full swing.  Let’s think of this moment as both a festive day and an opening bell. First, I’ll tell you why and then I’ll tell you how.

WHY?

Is it just me or does it seem like time gets faster as we get older? I felt like I was in second grade forever, but my senior year of college went by in a blink. And then it just never slowed down. Occasionally —usually in conversation at a cocktail party — someone would ask me a question that prompted me to mark time instead of just experiencing it. When did you graduate college? How long have you lived in New York? How long have you been with the company? How long ago did you meet your partner? I wasn’t just taken aback, I felt like I had been shoved by Superman. Time was passing faster than I’d been paying attention and it wasn’t giving me enough time to catch up. Tick, tick, tick. 

Somewhere along the way I decided that a year was just too unwieldy. At the start, the year felt long, like there would be more than enough time to actualize all the things on my vision board. But then December would roll around and I couldn’t make sense of where the time even went. One year, I decided I’d read 10 books (less than one book per month) and by November, I’d only read 3. I tried to close the gap in the final month but this turned my goal of leisure reading into a mandate, driven by shame and perfectionism. It was terrible!

Then I made a shift. 

Quarters. The Q1, Q2 financial calendar didn’t prompt much enthusiasm for me, but the idea of seasons did. I started living on a seasonal quarter system. Now, I didn’t invent this idea — there’s a really popular book called the 12 Week Year that proposes something similar. I haven’t read it so I can’t give you the nitty gritty but the author and I share a key idea: break down large chunks of time into something manageable, something you can see the end of. 

HOW?

If you’ve never tried this before, this is perfect time to start. Spring is peak season to get your seeds planted so that they can soak up that almost-summer sunlight and ripen into the fruits of your labor by harvest time in the fall. Hop into your overalls, grab a rake, and slather on some SPF. It’s time to farm some goals.

We’ve got 13 weeks until the Summer Solstice on June 20th, which marks the first day of summer. That day, we’ll enjoy the longest stretch of daylight that we get all year. Every day between now and then, the day will get a little longer, the sun will stay up a little later. We won’t even notice because it’s just a few minutes each day. As our days stretch in increments, you can, too. 

Writer adrienne maree brown says, “What you pay attention to grows.” Soooooooo… what do you want to grow this season? You could literally grow a small plant on your desk if that would bring you joy. You could finish that proposal or pitch you’ve had on the back burner. You could start taking walks on your lunch break. You could take 15 minutes between meetings to send a fun TikTok to a different friend every day. It could be anything; it could mean everything. 

Use the momentum of this equinox to stretch, to make incremental growth, to blossom, to sparkle. 💎 Don’t worry, I’m putting on my overalls, too, and I promise to check back with you in the summer.   

Happy Farming, Sparkle Gang! 💎 🧑🏾‍🌾

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