Third Quarter Moon

Today's waning third quarter moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. The focus for the next few days:

• Third quarter (waning half moon) - Renewal, cleansing, self-care

Agenda today:

1. Renewal plan

2. My self-care routine

3. Cleansing

4. Spring cleaning

5. Spring garden

1. Renewal plan:

I try to renew all four dimensions of my life (body, mind, heart, and spirit), as Stephen Covey taught: I spend about an hour each day on some combination of physical, mental, and spiritual regeneration activities, plus work to improve my social skills and relationships. Today's third quarter waning half moon is an opportunity to review how I'm doing, and make note of what could be improved:

Body & Discipline: Am I walking fast daily, plus some stretching, strength, and aerobics; eating well and drinking plenty of water; budgeting, saving, and spending within my means; sleeping and playing?

Mind & Vision: Am writing in my journal regularly; expressing myself with art and writing, reading a book on principled living; researching or studying something; teaching others?

Spirit & Ethics: Am I maintaining a daily awareness practice; maintaining my integrity; reviewing and working to understand my mission; immersing myself in creation (writing, art, and nature)? 

Heart & Passion: Am working daily to improve and repair relationships with my family and friends; making new friendships; volunteering my time in service; working to understand and care for myself; studying and practicing better skills for patience, listening, and communication?

My Journal: I have 3 renewal goals this week - to finish some books I've been reading for a long time now and find a new one, to create better daily art and nature awareness practices, and to discern my next steps socially (and my needs for growth) as I step gradually out of quarantine and into community.

2. My self-care routine:

Caring for myself with persistence leads to having more energy and better health, which means I have more mental focus, so I can approach my goals with more discipline. This is the virtue of courage: Tenacity + integrity = feeling vital.

Unfortunately, self-care bores me, but I've found that having daily rituals helps me to stay on track: A procedure for planning meals in advance, a certain time to stop everything and do 20 squats, and checking my blood pressure when I'm eating cereal... these routines help me to maintain the discipline to do it every day. 

Today I will review and renew my health and self-care routines.

3. Cleansing:

Cleansing means to purify my body/soul/mind and my sacred spaces, clearing out the negative energies that harbor there. This week I choose to take a ritual bath, infused with salts, flowers, and herbs (always my first choice!)

4. Spring cleaning plan:

Spring break week was traditionally when my whole family pitched in and tackled the big cleaning chores. Now I've noticed that my energy doesn't stretch to too many big chores in one week, and I've scaled back my goals. 

Now I have two goals for spring cleaning: Cleaning the windows, in and out, so we can see the colors of spring, and clearing the clutter that has stacked up over the winter months. This week I will focus on the clutter. My plan-

• Sunday - Clear surfaces in every room.
• Monday - Finish with clearing out my old filing cabinet and remove it.
• Tuesday - Deliver 3 bags of donations to St. Vincent de Paul, and post my filing cabinet on the Buy Nothing site.
• Wednesday - Put away winter coats, scarves, gloves, and hats.
• Thursday - Choose one item from my fix-it basket to fix or toss.
• Friday - Clear out one shelf in my hall cabinet.
• Saturday - Clear out the refrigerator.

5. Spring Garden: 

Early April is tulip time, and planting time. All the starts are going in now, because our frosts are generally over. I've been hardening-off the baby lettuce and the sunflowers I started from seed, and I need spaces in the garden to put them out. Weeding beds and planting is a daily task from now until the end of the month.

I've been trying to remember to be aware of my garden as a Being, and thank the plants and soil for all they give me. Before I plunge my trowel into the skin of Mother Earth, I explain my intentions and ask for advise: "I'm just going to pull out a few of these plants here to make room for some baby lettuce. Thank you for nurturing these babies for me. Do you need anything from me?"