The Sage Routine

Words on Self Care in a Shifting World

[Diary extract]

Continuing to feel calm with undercurrents of dread. This is the new normal.

I have had plenty of after work dips at Carlyon Bay, easily picking spots away from the gathered youths and the lone figures a-fishing for sea bass. The bar there is open now, neither busy nor empty. I can’t hear the music from the sea, only the waves.

Last time I swam a school of sand eels swarmed me, leaping out of velvety turquoise water in little flexes of silver under a sky smudged from mauve to orange.

Gaudy in a good way.

I floated back and berated myself for such luck, though I have put intention and action into curating this, because this is how I honour life. It is important sometimes to chastise oneself, to shake out the demons of laziness and complacency.

But when the dread seeps in it is necessary to change this tactic, to follow the sage routine:

allow it,

see it,

know it as part of the flow of change.

Give yourself the love you need. Small things are best. Small actions are fine. Remind yourself that it is not your sole responsibility to save the world, and that you will not be saving anything if you don’t take care of yourself.

Build from love.