Self-Cultivation

/

This will be my 14th annual cycle of dedicating a word/theme for the following year. Inspiration for this comes between the last new moon of December and the Winter Solstice, and I have found the 13 previous words essential to help carry and support me daily. My theme for the coming year is self-cultivation.

Being a gardener and working the soil for as long as I can remember, the idea of cultivating is not new to me, yet the idea of cultivating myself is. I am leaning into some good resources to better learn how to cultivate my inner and outer world more completely. This delights me, and I look forward to honoring this inspiration much, much longer than just one 12-month cycle.

If you chose a word or a theme that can carry you for the coming year, what would it be? Feel free to share and/or to keep it to yourself. I have found this a much more powerful practice when shared in community so we all can support each other with more capacious wisdom and care.

Until next time I offer these words of wisdom for better or for worse. Please take them with a grain of salt for we each live our own individual truths. Our mission while we are here is to understand, accept, and celebrate that one very simple, but incredibly significant fact. For all this, I am grateful.

Midwinter

/

There are more than 20 different holidays and observances celebrated this time of the year around the world (most likely more... please share as I love learning how individuals and cultures celebrate). The one that rings most true to me is the Winter Solstice today.

I began last night with the moon who was showing off a bit between the cloud cover. This morning the day began in the darkness, and then with a lit candle at my writing desk. Then, a gentle walk before dawn through the forest with my kitty over to the neighboring field where we could take in the light show. I tucked myself in at the edge near the trees, sat on the Earth, and connected with a dear WomanSister who celebrated the sunrise with me from afar.

I am ready to tuck myself in for a season of rest, reflection, and instinctive creativity. I am ready to relish in the quiet, deep cold air as it enters my lungs while I move outdoors.

Here's to the contrast of light and dark, and to the interconnectedness we all share no matter where we find our hearts on our precious planet today.

Until next time I offer these words of wisdom for better or for worse. Please take them with a grain of salt for we each live our own individual truths. Our mission while we are here is to understand, accept, and celebrate that one very simple, but incredibly significant fact. For all this, I am grateful.

The Sacred and the Mundane

/

I am dedicating this to the most sacred of places we may find mundane, normal, and passed by.

This is the entrance to a country driveway. This is a spot that most drive past every day without even taking notice. To the left of this drive is a large, bountiful cornfield. To the right is a pasture for beautiful and friendly dairy cows.

What I can share about this spot is that it may be the most magical of all passed by places on Earth. For this spot is where, eight years ago, I was held for the very first time by the Man who caught my breath in my chest and heart and dreams, and who invited me to rethink everything about what I understood a relationship could be.

This is the place where I Knew when I first held Him, I was holding onto a great tree of a Man - an ancient oak of a Man. I immediately Felt this and Knew this as soon as I put my arms around Him in this place, that He could hold me steady through all of what Life has to contribute. And, not only have we held each other through the storms, we have held each other in tenderness, laughter, joy, healing, connection, hope, creativity, and immense expansion as individuals.

When I pass by this place I feel the rush, the excitement, and the promise.

Here is to all of the sacred places we pass by every day. We may not understand it immediately in our mundane daily flow, but we pass by places like this every day... places where love has been kindled and places where love has been lost... places where life has been created and places where life has transitioned... places where brilliance has been fully realized and places where great suffering and atrocities have occurred.

The land upon which we all move is the same land upon which our ancient peoples moved... ancestors of ancestors. They hold us even now as we move through our daily and sacred mundane. The land holds us now through our daily and sacred mundane.

Please notice all of these sacred and mundane and normal places as you pass by. All we need to do is to slow down, to listen, and to become aware that these places exist everywhere.

The land and our collective ancestors will benefit from our attention, our care, and our tending.

Until next time I offer these words of wisdom for better or for worse. Please take them with a grain of salt for we each live our own individual truths. Our mission while we are here is to understand, accept, and celebrate that one very simple, but incredibly significant fact. For all this, I am grateful.

The Magical Use of Words

/

Where would we be without the magical use of words, and where would I be without my journals and pens? Today is International Fountain Pen Day, and in honor of my very favorite writing instruments, I'm sharing an image of my sexy journals that are in the current rotation along with one of my best friends... my pen.

It is said the pen is mightier than the sword, and oh my I find that more and more to be true. Let's bring our minds and hearts together. Let's bring empathy, compassion, connection, critical thinking, and quality conversation back. The world needs healing and peace and art and creative action. We certainly have what it takes to do it. Who's with me?

Until next time I offer these words of wisdom for better or for worse. Please take them with a grain of salt for we each live our own individual truths. Our mission while we are here is to understand, accept, and celebrate that one very simple, but incredibly significant fact. For all this, I am grateful.

Crossroads of Change

/

I am welcoming my Self into these Autumn energies by deeply embracing creative needs. I am playing with inks and paints and pens and brushes again. I am writing every day. I am receiving support from mentors and bodyworker-healers. I am investing deep time offline and enjoying the process of hearing my own voice and heart. I am embracing more closely the cycle of life and death, the sun and the moon, lightness and darkness, the change and pace of seasons... and the greatness of it all. I am working with my amazing partner to reconfigure space in our home to suit our needs for family and creativity and work. I am deeply enjoying this powerful, creative, soft feminine way of being in the world.

Until next time I offer these words of wisdom for better or for worse. Please take them with a grain of salt for we each live our own individual truths. Our mission while we are here is to understand, accept, and celebrate that one very simple, but incredibly significant fact. For all this, I am grateful.