A letter to your body, actually, it’s a letter to your heart:

The #1 thing that I hear from folks about why they don’t grab hold of their most juicy lives, (and not just when it comes to creating clothing but in so many creative endeavors), -what I hear from folks about what keeps them from really stepping into dreaming, designing, and living out their plans?

It’s because they don’t like their bodies, —right now.

I hear it time and again.

We are waiting to get back to loving & living in our bodies AFTER:

After loosing weight from having a kid, after getting to equilibrium in menopause, after having energy again, after our thighs are thinner, after we recover from an injury, after….

What I hear from bodaciously amazing women everywhere is that we are waiting for our lives to start.

And I get it, I do. I’ve been struggling with unexplained deep exhaustion for over a year, so I’ve done a lot of laying in the bed, resting, and eating. I am not loving the body that I’m currently in.

Exhausted and uncomfortable, today I went to grab stretchy comfortable exercise shorts. I was sad, I was looking for ease, & ways to hide.

But I stopped myself, my buddy Marisol often shares choosing to get dressed joyfully changes her entire day and I know I’ve experienced that simple medicine myself.

Many years ago I stopped just making for my dream body, I started tenderly making for all the moon phases in which I live, so today I turned back to the clothes that bring me ease AND joy.

I want to share with you something I came to expect as a former women’s apparel/ bridal designer.

Each time I met with a client I also met & soothed the universal sadness & discomfort of every single one of my patrons about their bodies.

No matter our shape and size, we all have that grief and insecurity.

Even the professional models I worked with in the fashion industry were often waiting until that one thing about their bodies slid into place before they reached for their big dreams.

But then there are the dancers:
On our farmplace there is a big old barn that we have turned into a place of artistic collaboration. There’s a sprung dance floor in the huge on hayloft & we host dancers in residence with our arts nonprofit neighbors.

I have the great fortune of getting to watch professional dancers walk onto the farm and up into the dance loft.

Sometimes they don’t “look like a dancer.”

After watching dozens dance in that studio, it’s those dancers that make me sob. The folks with real curves and real live bodies…

They don’t pause to ask if they are worthy, they just keep at their art. And their art, the way they move, the spirit of their hearts and souls, it’ll bring you to your knees.
The way they move and create and express is moving, it's spiritual.

Those folks that don’t have “traditional dancers bodies”?

They dance it differently and differently is astounding; it is a revelation.

We need the people that aren’t waiting.

Months ago I asked the question:
”What makes you feel at home in yourself.?”

It’s not a coincidence that many responses were:
Dancing, swimming, and other kinds of movement. Moving to get us out of our heads and back into our form.

We have this chance in our lives where we are being offered the moment to jump in and live it or to wait until,

Until, After, When -they rarely arrive.

______

I teach following your unique inspiration, design, and making -building clothes for the body you’re in because of the beautiful invitation that it offers to you to embrace exactly who you are and how you are right now.

I often say that the first step is dreaming but I’m wrong.

There’s a tender step before that and it is making friends with the grief you feel for the body you don’t have so that you can actually step into dreaming, planning, and creating for the body and the life that you do.

At the heart of it, I want you to unleash that unabashed spirit inside of you
-whether or not you ever grab inspiration pictures for your magical inspiration map, a pencil to sketch out the frock of your dreams, or a needle and thread to make it an actuality.

You are in possession of an unabashed spirit right this very moment.

Do not let it wither on the vine while you wait for its harvest. It is ripe now. The time is here. Pluck it, & start living your full life.

I invite you to take a slow walk.

I invite you to drink some water.

I invite you to watch children playing full out in so many types of bodies.

I invite you to grieve what isn’t.

I invite you to start making friends with what is.

I invite you to start watching/following/reading folks that are living their juicy lives right now, jiggling thighs, dimples, wrinkles, disabilities, exhaustion, and everything else.

I invite you to think about what comfortable type of garment would also bring you joy.

So much love & earnest belief in the worthiness of the body you’re in,

Sarahbeth