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#48 Springing from Snow: A Cozy Reflection Journey

[00:00:00] Hey, there you are listening to the In Kinship Podcast, a podcast for those who crave a vibrant, lit up life on their own terms. And I’m your host, Tina Vandenberg. Thanks for being here.

As I’m recording this, we are on the cusp of the spring equinox. It is March 18th, 2026, and spring is right around the corner, literally, except in my neck of the woods. We just got three feet of snow. Like, wow. Was that unexpected? Alright. It wasn’t really unexpected. Was it? Kind of unwanted? Yeah, a little bit.

And if you’ve been listening to me for any length of time, you know that I am a big advocate for embracing the life that you have in front of you and doing what you can to steer your experience and steer, how you feel and the joy that you have in it. Sadly, though, I had gone downstate a week or two ago and all the snow was gone and it was warm, and I thought, [00:01:00] Hmm, this feels like spring and I’m ready for this.

And I came back here to my home in northern Lower Michigan, and we also had the warm weather and the snow was still on the ground, but it was rapidly shrinking. And then this past weekend. We had a giant snowstorm coming, which truth be told, I kind of love, I always love when nature makes these grand gestures that takes us out of our day-to-day routine, doesn’t harm us, but makes us take a pause like we are no longer able to get out of the driveway per se, or run to the store if we need to. So it gives us this opportunity to check into our inner selves and see how very capable we are.

And also like. Just put the pause on life for a minute, minute. So I have always loved that. I’ve always loved when the electricity goes out for a day or two when there’s a major snow storm and we can’t leave the house and we’re [00:02:00] all cozied in. It has always made me a little giddy and lets me brush off those survival skills that I love so much.

Now that being said, I’m not really here for like long-term emergency situation. Like that would kinda suck, but at the same time, I like these little trial runs, right? To see how prepared I am, to see what I’m missing, to see what I need, . Anyway, we got this three feet of snow and there was a lot of conversation that we were gonna have ice like we did last year, which I thought was a once in a lifetime experience.

We didn’t end up getting ice in my neck of the woods, but they did south of us, which my heart goes out too. ’cause like that was a big undertaking last year when we got over a quarter of an inch of ice on the trees it took weeks to clear up broken trees and downed limbs, and it just was a state of emergency, which [00:03:00] while that’s exhausting and disruptive, I also love the elements that came out of it.

The conversations I had with my neighbors that I’d never had before. The ability to like become more active in the community ’cause you’re helping one another, clear trees out of your driveways, things like that. I think that often those kinda experiences give us the opportunity to just show up as our best selves because we’re not worried about any of the mundane things that keep us full of apathy in our normal lives.

We’re just there to be helpful in the moment, to be in the present. And connect and I think that’s really, there’s a beauty to that. Anyway, we got the story Feet of snow, which is a lot. I know some of you have got some people in Northern. And the upper peninsula of Michigan got over four feet. So like, you know, wow.

Because this took days to dig ourselves out. The snow was [00:04:00] so deep in the driveway that the plow truck couldn’t even push it. So we actually had to hand dig out the driveway, which was a big strenuous job, let me tell you. But all of that to say. It’s not spring here yet. In fact, I can’t even see the lawn chairs and things that are in the yard.

They’re buried, like there’s just little bumps right now, and I, am trying to hold onto the energy that spring is springing whether I can see it or not. Because that is the truth, right? And I definitely have this stirring deep in myself. And I wonder if you feel that too. ’cause we are part of nature, right?

We have definitely developed a life where we can be outta the element, we can be disconnected, but ultimately we are still part of nature. And I, in my journey, want to be even more connected to the seasons and to what is happening to [00:05:00] mother earth around me. And so that’s. A big part of, I guess my joy is to notice it.

It’s gonna happen whether we notice it or not, but I have been noticing this deep stirring to like spring into action, right? I have all these things I’m working on and I definitely have made progress on a lot of the things, but I also feel this deeper sense of like, well, honestly, like I’m watching people from other parts of the world.

Other parts of the country, other parts of the state, starting to see flowers pop up in their yard and start gardening, and I feel a little envious right this moment, which is also another great opportunity. There’s so many opportunities in life to step back and say, all right, how do I embrace the three feet of snow I have in my yard right now?

And how can I bring in this energy of spring, regardless of what it looks like outside? Because isn’t that the whole point of the journey is I can’t fight the snow. [00:06:00] It’s here. I can’t do my thing about it. And you know that I actually love snow. So my heart goes out to the people who hate snow, who live up here.

I love snow. I love skiing. I’m sort of interested to try it out, but honestly, I have been too exhausted from all the shoveling to even attempt it because even though the skis will keep you aloft a bit. You’re still gonna have to really break trail rather when you’re skiing. And so maybe I’ll try that this weekend.

We’ll see as a celebration of spring.

But how can I embrace the actual season that I’m in? Because spring is still springing underneath the ground. It’s still warmer than it has been in February, as an example. So how do I embrace that Bit of spring?

I’m not entirely sure yet, but I think by the end of the podcast I might know. As an interesting twist to that, part of my cosmic horoscope for the week is to pay close attention to my dreams. I get a [00:07:00] horoscope that is based on my moon sign. For me, that is a Pisces. And so I have found that to be really, impactful. I guess I love my sun, sun sign, which is an Aries and I love the fiery nature of her and that energy, but Pisces feels like my inner world, my inner workings, and so doing the horoscope from my moon sign, there’s a website that I go to, which I’ll try to link in the show notes, has been really resonant with me.

And so for Pisces Moon this week. Paying attention to messages coming through in your dreams is really, powerful. Like saying that pay attention, decode what’s there. And so I typically am not much of a dreamer. I don’t typically have terrible dreams anymore.

I used to, I used to have nightmares all the time when I was a kid, which I haven’t really dove into what that’s about but I don’t [00:08:00] have nightmares all that often anymore. But I also never really have elated beautiful dreams either.

I don’t remember any of them. If I do, I remember this one dream probably from 20 years ago, and it has stuck with me this entire time. And in this dream I was on this swing and the rope of the swing went all the way up to the moon and it hung off of the crescent moon like, like in a very cartoony kinda way, right?

And I was swinging through what I believed to be New York City. I was swinging full of glee and joy through the streets of New York City, past people’s windows just swinging back and forth in this giant like miles long arc. And I have never forgotten that dream because I woke up feeling so over joy.

Like, so giddy, I guess. And that’s a pretty rare thing for me would dream. So I’ve [00:09:00] never forgotten that one. Do you dream? Do you have really exciting. Elated kind of dreams like that.

I typically don’t remember them. If I do, like I said, and I try not to worry about that too much. ’cause for a little while there in my life, I thought, well, you know, as we do anything that we don’t experience other people do, especially if it’s a good thing, we think somehow it’s a sign of our unworthiness to have beautiful dreams.

And then finally, I have come to the point where it’s like. It does not make me unworthy because I don’t remember my dreams often, and I don’t have big, joyful dreams. It just means that’s not the way that I work through things or the way that the God or goddess or the universe communicates with me typically.

And that’s all right. Right. Like, gosh, there’s so much beauty to just letting your experience be okay, so. I have this missive this week to pay [00:10:00] attention to my dreams. And I thought, well, all right, if I have any dreams, I’ll pay attention. And then this morning I woke up and I had this crazy dream and I thought, whoa, that is wild.

And I tried really hard to lay in bed for a moment so that I would remember it. ’cause you know how fleeting those can be. And so I sat there for a moment. Trying to recall the details and be connected to this dream I had.

So in this dream, I’m in my car whose name is Perley girl, by the way, in real life. And I have my little camper hooked up behind it, which is a 1964 Apache Eagle. For any of you out there who know campers, bit of a stretch. It’s really more of a canvas tent on a trailer bed. That has pop out beds. I adore her.

She’s just the sweetest thing. And there’s no amenities, right? Like there’s no electricity, there’s no bathroom, there’s none of that. It’s literally a canvas tent from [00:11:00] 1964, that you walk into and it has a table and it has two beds. Anyway, I adore it so. The camper who doesn’t have a name yet is attached to Perley Girl, and I’m parked on the edge of a gas station because I don’t really have skills at backing up.

It’s one of my lists of things to conquer maybe this year. So I don’t have skillet backing up, so anytime. Well, always I am looking for something where I can pull through. So I typically, if I’m at a gas station and I’m not getting gas, I will park at the edge of the gas station parking lot so that I’m out of the way and I have room and I can continue to pull through.

So this edge is

a little dingy, right? The gas station’s a little dingy. It’s a little rundown. It’s dusk. And i’m parked at the edge of the parking lot underneath this light that’s kind of flickering and also gives us like sort of dingy aspect to it. [00:12:00] I’m parked halfway underneath this roof line and there’s a misty drizzly rain that’s maybe freezing. It’s hard to tell coming down, and so the rain coming off of that roof line is hitting my window on the driver’s side.

And I am sitting there and my boyfriend is also there, but he’s not in the car. He’s sort of prowling around the car like a little content, a little restless. It’s kind of interesting. And then up alongside of us pulls this man. And we have our windows down and we’re talking and we’re having a great conversation.

And I am in my seat, my passenger seat on the floor is like a boombox, not like an eighties boombox, to be clear, but like, I don’t know, it almost looks like a generator, but it’s producing music, kind of maybe like the radios that construction workers have. So something like that is down on the passenger floor in my car, and it’s creating this.[00:13:00] 

Great music, like we’re all really enjoying the music and the sound is really good. So we’re having this great conversation, my boyfriend and I, and this man in his car. It’s light, it’s like small talk, but like just really great connection. And then eventually he drives away and my boyfriend disappears and I’m there by myself and I’m sitting in my car by myself and feeling like.

Just a little listless, you know, like when you’re in your car and you’re not ready to move on to whatever you’re gonna do next. So you pick up your phone and you end up wasting terrible amounts of time, scrolling things and feeling generally crappy about yourself.

That’s how I feel. I’m actually not on my phone, but that’s how I feel while I’m sitting there and this woman knocks on my window and she looks like the woman from Goonies. If you’ve ever seen Goonies, that’s what she looks like. She’s like. Over middle aged and kinda haggard and gruff looking. She knocks on [00:14:00] my window and I open my door and she’s like, get out, we’re taking your car.

And I look around through the drizzly mist and I see three men around the car and they’re kind of Doy menacing looking, sort of milling about. And I’m like, oh, dang it. And I thought to myself, if I’d have just driven away. When everyone disappeared and went on my way, then I wouldn’t be getting carjacked right now.

So I’m annoyed, but I’m just like gonna give up. So I get my phone and I get my wallet and I get out and she’s like, lady, you’ve obviously not wants to live Dateline. And I realize I’m in dream you means because like one. Like, I just like gave up two. I don’t have my car’s doors locked. I’m parked at the edge of the parking lot.

It’s dark, it’s dingy, like all the things you’re not supposed to do. Right? And I’m walking away. I’m like, she is right. Like I just gave up this my car and I look over, I’m like, is my camper still attached? Are they gonna take off with my camper? Like right. I’m [00:15:00] all these thoughts are going through my head and I look back and they’re just kinda like milling about my car.

They haven’t gotten in it yet. They realize like. They have no reason to rush. I’m not, it’s gonna stop them. And so I’m like, you know what? I’m taking my car back. So I turn around and I go to take my car and I go to open the door. And this man who kind of looks like Danny DeVito, it’s very strange dream, uh, but little taller, stops me.

He sees me and he like puts his hand on the door and slams it shut. And like leers at me, right? And I’m like, you’re not taking my car. And I go to punch him in the face, which is not something I’ve ever done. Lemme be very clear, but in my dream. It’s one of those dreams where you’re trying to defend yourself or trying to fight something off, and your arms are like putty all of a sudden.

So he waits for me to hit him, and I try to hit him in the face in my hand, like air blocks off of his face and turns like Gumby, right? And I try like [00:16:00] 17 times and he’s just laughing because like I’m obviously not fighting him. In fact, everyone’s laughing, like all of ’em are laughing at my ridiculous attempt.

To take back my car and then I wake up and I thought, what on earth is that dream about? Right? So I sat there thinking about it before I got out of bed, and then when I did my morning pages, which, I’m gonna advocate for again, like, they have been so transformative in my life and part of my morning routine of this beautiful moment for me to really reflect on my thoughts and.

I put them on paper and see them in a different light. It’s been amazing. Anyway, I write about it in my morning pages today, and

I realize there may be more for me to unpack in this, but what initially hits me is that my reaction time is too slow, that I’m in some sort of apathy and I’m not reacting. With [00:17:00] passion and vigor and certainty to the stimulus in front of me. And I’m also not fighting, and I don’t mean like in a struggle upstream, ’cause I’ve been doing that for like most of my life and I’ve been trying hard not to do that.

But I mean, even just like doing the work, honoring the effort that I need to put in. To have the kinda life that I want to have, and specifically I think this involves the work that I’m doing as far as my business and also as far as my home. So part of this hits solid because we are on a major pause on the home build because, well now we have three feet of snow, but before that, we had a very snowy winter and I was not able to get the drywall or the wall covering in to finish the addition.

So we’re bending this holding pattern for several months, which has felt beautiful. But is now shifting from feeling beautiful, to feeling stressful, to feeling like spinning my wheels, which I think is [00:18:00] intriguing. And when I look at it, I think that’s the perfect example of how I feel like I am in that spring energy.

I’m ready to spring into action, but I can’t quite yet because nature’s not allowing me to. And so knowing that one is really empowering and two. I now get to pick, okay, what can I do that will help me feel like I’m still moving forward? So there’s still a few little projects I wanna work on. So this weekend I’m gonna paint the bookshelves that we built a couple weeks ago.

The original plan was to wait to paint them until the living room was finished. And now I’m like, why don’t I just work on those things? Why don’t I work on the things that will feel like progress and beauty to me, rather than, sitting in this feeling of kind of apathy or I guess empathy is the best word I can come up with.

So like we get to choose, right? We get to connect to how we feel and choose how we want to move forward, how we can bring those [00:19:00] feelings that we’re craving into our life right now. And so that feels really good. And so it feels like this dream is touching on the sort of fog that I have been in, in regard to the work that I’m putting out in the world.

I’m in the middle of some changes and what I’m doing, and I am struggling to let some things go. I’m excited to embrace some new things, but I’m still caught a little bit in that limbo. So I think that’s what this dream is about. I think So how fun is that, right? To get a little message from the universe because I think that’s what it is.

And I shared this with a friend of mine. And the response was that not maybe that this was magic, but that my horoscope put the idea into my head and sort of led the witness, if you will. And I thought, you know, that could be the case, but wouldn’t that be exactly the way that magic could come to you?[00:20:00] 

Right? Like, doesn’t insight come in a way that we, our brains can wrap our heads around it, so it doesn’t really matter whether. I had the idea that I was gonna have a dream based on this horoscope, and then I had the dream, or if the horoscope just opened up my mind to say pay extra attention. And so I chose to pay extra attention and now I got this insight and message from it.

I am also not leaving the idea that this is all my own inner wisdom, because I am a piece of the universe. I’m connected to the universe that comes through because I’m willing to play with this information in this way. I’m willing to sit down and think about what the dream can mean. I’m willing to look for symbolism.

I’m willing to write it out and consider right. And I think that those things can come to us, however we imagine. And that being open and curious and wondering and full of [00:21:00] wonder is really where Joy for me at least, comes from, is the idea of like, how could this be as wonderful as possible, even when it’s also hard?

’cause it is. Life is all of those things. And we both get to

experience giddy happiness and deep sorrow. And I, in an annoying kind of way, like what a gift. Right. Alright, dear winds, I wonder if you have any dreams. This week and what they might mean, you know, I would love to hear from you. If that is the case, you can email me at Kinship handwork@gmail.com.

I’d love to hear from you. Also, one of the things that I’m working on that I’m so excited about and I would love for you to join me in is called Embodied Joy, and it’s a [00:22:00] monthly audio on the New Moon, we’ll talk about the seasons, we’ll talk about the cosmic environment, we’ll talk about the moon cycle. I’ll do a guided meditation, maybe some journaling prompts, some other little bits that you can take into your month to connect yourself, not only to yourself, but to the earth and to the seasons.

This is something that is so dear to my heart because I love having a little sacredness in my life. I love just bringing little elements into my day-to-day life, and it it adds a bit of presence, and I wanna share that with you.

So if you are interested in joining us for Embodied Joy, it’s a short audio once a month just to add a little sacredness and a little timeliness into your life. You can find out more at kinship handwork.com/embodied joy. All right, dear winds, have a wonderful week and [00:23:00] I will talk to you soon.