A Life That Feels Good
On heiterkeit and a journal for the slow work of building one.
The longest days are here, and with them a subtle turning as the year tilts towards something new. It feels like the right moment to share a little about the journal pictured above, Your Woven Year.
Heiter
Heiter - a word that keeps circling - it’s German, and it doesn’t translate cleanly, which is half its charm. It’s a kind of lightness. Serene, bright, unhurried. The quality of a clear sky, or an afternoon with nowhere particular to be. And heiterkeit is the state of living that way on purpose. I was introduced to the idea of heiter in a conversation with Katharina Geissler-Evans of heiter magazine, who has built a life, a magazine and a community around this very concept.
Kiki’s (Katharina) approach resonates because my journal, Your Woven Year began as a feeling that a good life isn’t engineered in one grand push but woven, intentionally, a season at a time. A moment noticed. A small intention set. A page returned to, and the subtle surprise of seeing how far you’ve come without striving.
Your Woven Year
Your Woven Year brings the seasonal and academic year into closer relationship while also acknowledging the tensions. It’s a companion for paying attention to the turning of the year, and to your own turning alongside it.
I made it because I needed it and because my experience of facilitating The Thread Community showed me it was needed by others too. The reflective personal and professional life is easy to believe in and hard to keep hold of; intentions set down in August are often lost by October without somewhere to return to them. Your Woven Year is that somewhere - a structure gentle enough to keep and seasonal enough to forgive you when life pulls you away and you come back three weeks later, as we all do. It asks only that you notice, and then notice again.
That, to me, is heiterkeit in practice. The deliberate making of room for what feels good and true, even in a full and ordinary life.
Kiki, who introduced me to the idea of heiter, is running a Kickstarter campaign at the moment to bring the Blossoming Issue of heiter magazine to life. Bringing printed products into the world is never easy, whatever their size - and having now made three small products of my own, I get it. This is why I’ve pre-ordered my copy and want to support by sharing this with you. There are several ways to help; the simplest, perhaps, is to pre-purchase a copy. The campaign is just over halfway funded and closes on 25 June. It would be lovely to see the Blossoming Issue flourish out in the world.
We're deep in the long light now as we edge towards the summer solstice, and on the threshold of something. A new year for the journal begins in August, when the days start their slow turn and many of us reset at the start of the academic year.
I’ve only a small number of copies left this time round. So if you’ve kept company with Your Woven Year this year and loved it, now is the time to buy yours for August. And if you’ve never had one but find yourself a little curious, this is as good a doorway as any - beginnings rarely announce themselves; mostly you simply decide on one.
Perhaps the heiter question worth asking at this threshold is:
What would it take to build a life that feels good - not someday, but this season?
The journal is one way to begin. Whatever yours is, I hope a little lightness finds you in it.
With warmth,
Sarah
Coming Up
The Thread - my reflective community for educators opens for a new year on 2nd September. If you’ve been wondering if there’s a place and a space where you can be in community, learn and feel empowered in life and work, The Thread offers just that.
Space to Think: Conversations in Education - the final episode of the season lands next week and Simon Botton joins me to discuss the realities of headship.
A summer pause: with that episode, things here will mostly slow over the long summer days. I’ll still be in touch but I’ll also be honouring the summer pause in my own way.
From the Archives
If this has stirred something, you might enjoy The Journal That Doesn't Demand - It Invites, written last summer as Your Woven Year first arrived in the world. It goes a little deeper into who the journal is for (educators, yes, but far from only them) and the essence of it - a companion that asks nothing of you but your attention, and hands back a little room to breathe.
P.S. In case you’re short on time and you’ve scrolled to the bottom, here’s the essence of this piece…a good life is built slowly, a season at a time and Your Woven Year is my small companion for that. I've only a few copies left before the new year begins in August, so now's the moment, whether you're returning or simply curious. And if you've a little to spare, Kiki's heiter magazine is crowdfunding its Blossoming Issue until 25 June: kindred, slow, lovely making and well worth a look.
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