welcome to the lake effect

Dear visitor,

Welcome to this very special space I am creating!

I’m so happy you’re here and I’m really grateful to be part of your journey and to share a small part of mine with you.

Over a year ago, I started my first “official” blog, Seeds from the Garden. It’s a collection of poems, lessons and journal entries that I’ve really enjoyed sharing.

One day last week, during my daily nature walk to visit the lake, I sat and reflected on my life. I thought about my goals, the current challenges I was facing personally and of course, my emotions. As my brain churned, I started to stare off into the lake. I began noticing the way it was behaving. The way it felt alive. It was an incredibly windy day. The lake was violently rushing against the shore and it sort of mirrored how I was feeling. I had just gone through a devastating and heartbreaking situation and I was entering a stage of anger and rage. As the wind whipped and the waves slapped and capped, I realized that I could feel anger and rage. If the lake could feel it, so could I. In that moment I met myself unconditionally where I was at. Then, anger turned to fear and then fear turned to sadness. I realized that the feeling pulsing through my body was loss and grief. I began to shed tears. It was then and there in front of the lake, that I was able to fully feel it all and release it out of my body. I felt a true and numinous sense of community and comradery with the lake.

Even when I am unaware of how I am feeling, I’ve always found that nature and animals are so acutely perfect at mirroring back my emotions, gifting me with wisdom and supporting me through my most challenging times.

It was in that moment that I decided this was a pretty phenomenal experience. And a beautiful sacred gift that needed a container to live in.

So, I did what any creative would do - I came up with an idea to help me document and share my experiences with myself and experiences with my emotions in relation to the lake.

This project is considered a photo voice meaning it’s my story mostly told through photos and captions and bits of information. Some entries will have barely nothing and some will have a lot. I find it interesting to document details like the outside temperature, the time of day, the wind pattern (or speed in knots), and a few intuitive words I’d use to describe the condition or character of the lake. The plan is to complete 30 days of this experience and share it in this space in real time.

Why would I call it The Lake Effect? Because lake effect is a meteorological phenomenon that happens when warm, moist air rising from a body of water mixes with cold dry air overhead resulting in precipitation on land, usually in the form of snow. Not only is the title fitting given the lake’s actual effect on my self awareness and emotional awareness, but the result I find that usually follows feels like alchemy in the form of energy clearing from my body or in the form of a water release ( tears ). Thus, the lake effect.

I hope this space becomes a special place for you to visit when you need a little hope, adventure or inspiration. I hope that when you feel lonely and you witness my experience with the lake that you can also find solace in nature around you. Lake or no lake, it’s gift is always there for those ready to receive it.

Welcome to The Lake Effect.

jamie