Dearest one reading this,

Thank you for your intention and your curiosity that brought you to today’s letter.

We are now halfway through this year and it has already been a time of many different, heart expanding and heart breaking stories and some have even changed the trajectory of lives. For many it seems that life has moved in light speed within a matter of a few weeks to an extent that doesn’t allow for anything else but forward motion. There is no more going back to old ways, no more hiding behind what feels known or familiar, there is maybe even no more use of anything that is known – in comes a notion of unlearning that is required to be able to move ahead with life in alignment and greater contentment.

If you are amongst the ones who have experienced this, I would like to applaud and uplift you for your courage to walk hand in hand with your truth and for seeking out the path that is right for you.

If you have been following our journey for a little bit – I would also like to thank you at this point for being a loyal and caring part of our Ananda world. Your energy and participation matters, impacts and inspires our doing and the creating of our business every year.

Looking back

We began the year with a contemplation about hope. 

2022, the year when life started to open towards being mobile and in shared spaces again, was nothing short of intensity, challenge, disorientation and disassociation.

I had a deep, inner craving to focus on hope, on myths and fairytales, on the good and beautiful stories that can shape our lives.

It was a desire to

“…to see and read about fairy tales, about myths and wonders, not the ones with unrealistic expectations of love and light, or hard and hurtfully learned lessons, morals and lectures, but the ones where humans, animals and spirit beings simply made it through their challenges and struggles because they believed in something greater and bigger than what currently is.”

And this is what we focussed on these passed few months. We sat with what hope meant to us, we gathered what helped us to cultivate hope and we shared these stories with one another.

• In our own ways, hope has manifested itself through a growing team of now 22 beautiful souls that work with our brand.
• Bali is buzzing and so do both our beautiful stores in Ubud and Uluwatu and we can not be anything less than grateful for the smiling eyes and faces we encounter with every shop visit.
• Hope manifests in the gentle seeds we have been planting towards finding support for our future solid gold collection. Solid gold has the potential to be lovingly passed on from generation to generation, infused with value, intention and meaning – in other words, a legacy. This journey has not fully started yet, however, our intentions are clear and more updates will follow soon.
• Hope, myths and animal wisdom found their way into our new collection that is due to land in our stores in the next month. Please stay tuned for what has come through for us this time.

What informs us now

Whatever has been growing and coming alive through us derives from a deep connection to our environment as well as our intuitive actions. Behind it all lies the understanding that there is something bigger that connects us – spirit. In light of all personal unravellings this year we come to a point of inviting in trust, humbleness and devotion. 

For me personally it has been a year of somatic work, feeling into my body, assessing my habits, thoughts and patterns around my body and my health and through this all it has come to deepening touch with the nervous system. It has been a lot of digesting and processing through the body, through our vessel and a landing deep in my own center of creation. Being in a stage of life – these odd, yet whimsical years between 36 and 45 years old – where we are neither young nor old, but something in between, brings up many new questions – for me and my loved ones around me, for us as women.

These in between everything years

Sandwiched somewhere between outgrowing our student years, first jobs, a lot of trial and error AND buying into real estate, setting ourselves up for financing long term plans and retirement are these years located somewhere between 36 and 45 that especially in the life of a woman are colored in some very interesting hues nobody really understands and knows how speak about. It is this time that is somehow, despite being in the middle of it, hard to put into words, where we either have or are about to settle, to maybe have a family, to establish ritual and structure in our lives and move beyond the point of where we continuously seek what we become next. At least that's what most people tend to believe.

Over this past year I, amongst many other women around me of a similar age, have been asking ourselves the same questions:

What do I do now? I don't have children, do I want them? Can I have children? Who will I have them with (if I don't have a partner)? Am I ready for them or when is a good timing? Do I own who I am enough that I can be happy and content if something that I believe needs to happen, won't happen? How do I deal with redirection? What is the right direction anyway? How can I sustain myself (better)? When is enough enough? What about my parents? Where is home? What is happiness? My body is changing – how am I going to deal with this? What is my relationship to ageing? How much do I need to hold on?

I believe, the list can go on forever...

What does it all mean for you?

My approach to addressing questions like these has always been connecting back to my body and to nature. It is through these tools that I drop the mind games and comparison and be with what is right in front of me.

I asked myself what does fertility and creation mean? Is it only the ability to carry a child? Or is it actually a lot more?

As I moved into my 40s earlier this year I felt like I moved into another stage of life. I find a greater sense of calm in owning who I am. Fertility is more than the physical aspect of it. It is being receptive to the potential that life grants us in any given moment. It connects me to my womb space, the origin place of wisdom, intuition and creation. Everything I express and create originates and is birthed from this place. It allows for me to speak my truth, stand in my truth, lean into what is given – as here it is also where we find the inner knowings around nature wisdom, myths and stories passed on from generations before us. There is no need to know when life's knowing does it all already anyway.

For the rest of the year...

...this is the place I work and operate from. I encourage my team to connect with what is beyond us. Whether that is through the spirit and rituals of Bali, or embodiment and somatic practices for the ones who find access to it, or the simplicity of connecting to nature, being creative and expressive – all roads lead to you. 

I am excited to share that a new collection has been in the works. Inspired by myths and stories of ancient figures and animal friends, the nourishing and gentle energies of carefully selected gemstones and symbolism that will surprise and open your hearts as much as your eyes. There is the call to always be true to yourself, to feel the pearls of wisdom that lie dormant within you, to lift your awareness to the curious wonders of the heart – I can't wait for you to see it all.

I hope this 2nd half of the year treats you kindly. Sweetly. Wholeheartedly. So that whatever you encounter along the way can be held with humbleness and grace. 

May you be well, may you be at peace,

Christina