This will be reaching you in March. Here in Yorkshire, the sun has occasionally been managing to break through winter's overcast skies.

Spring feels imminent. Bird song is intensifying. Daffodils are beginning to open. Frog spawn is appearing in ponds. Cherry blossom is coming. March is certainly a month of rapid transition in Nature. After months of dormancy and rest, fauna and flora start to burst forth with renewed and vibrant energies. Growth is in the air.

Maybe you have been drawn to be spending more time outdoors as we too respond to this seasonal transition. Certainly any sign of the sun has felt a magnet to me. I always love to see the sun on water... and I have much enjoyed just wandering down to the seafront when the opportunities have come. Just spending time watching the play of light always feels inspiring to me. And the sun has already been warm enough to make me smile as I feel its warmth on my skin.

So for us too spring can evoke a sense of opening to new possibilities. But we perhaps need to be mindful of finding our own pace and timing for these. We each have our own journey, and it's of course fine to emerge when we're ready, unpressured by the world around us.

Scarborough, February 2026. Barbara Payman.

Scarborough, February 2026. Barbara Payman.

So this week's self-kindness invitation is to tune into and savour the beauty of spring emerging in the outer world... and to take note too of 'your inner spring', allowing yourself time to emerge at your own pace, as fully as you wish, when you are ready.

Go well.

In warmth and kindness

Barbara