Chinese New Year of the Snake

Today is the Chinese New Year, which starts when the new moon appears in China. This is the month of the Holiday Moon, and the year of the wood snake: The snake is an auspicious sign for inner work, for shedding toxicity in personality, letting go of the past, letting go of anger, releasing unrealistic expectations of loved ones, and getting rid of bad habits. The wood element holds profound meaning in Daoism, a sign of returning to one’s natural state or true nature.

Tonight is also the new moon. This first new moon of the Chinese year is called the Holiday Moon, because it's the start of a month-long holiday season in China. The new moon is a time of high energy and clear thinking. Historically, the new moon is when women took time to be alone; it's a time to retreat, set intentions, and initiate something new.

The first day of the Chinese New Year is called Yüan-tan, the "Day of Origin". This one day determines the luck for the entire year, so Chinese people are careful to use their best manners and to remain honest and peaceful.

Agenda for today: 

1. Retreat Day

2. Choose a month theme

3. Set intentions

4. New moon altar and meditation

5. Eat jai for breakfast
6. Give gifts

7. Make and give hóngbāo (money packets)

Chinese New Year's Eve

Tonight is Chinese New Year's Eve. In China, New Year's evening is called Ch’u-yeh, the "evening of discarding", because we can finally be done with the old year, and with winter.

This last day of the year is busy for Chinese families, because it’s the last chance to complete preparations and be ready to start the year fresh. When the running around is done, the family spends the rest of the day at home together -- family connections are the big theme for this holiday.

Agenda:

1. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

2. Thanksgiving ceremony

3. Welcoming ceremony

4. Have a family open house

My Room

I'm lucky to have a room to call mine; this small room (which is just called My Room) is where I spend most of my alone time - where I write every morning, and return to throughout the day to recenter and catch my breath.

A room of my own has always been essential for me, because I am an introvert. I have always needed a room with a closed door, and plenty of quiet time to be alone in it - time to read, collect things, make up stories, become an expert at something, listen to rock & roll, or browse the internet. This is not passive or wasted time; I am intensely focused on filling myself up with creative energy and juicy ideas, and the harmony and balance I need to succeed.

My Room is pretty packed with stuff; it's where I store my computer, my clothes, most of my books, my sewing machine and ironing board, and my photo albums and memorabilia. It feels cramped and cluttered, even though it's pretty tidy. This final week of January I will devote to creating some order and peace in here.

Agenda today:

1. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

2. Clean and clear My Room

3. Simple steps for health

Busy Sabbath

Today is a Sabbath so full I'm already feeling anxious. But now I take a breath - let it out - and let go of the need to do everything. I will choose my three top priorities, and let go of the rest.

Agenda:

1. Choose top priorities

2. Read "Everyday Simplicity"

Prepare for Imbalc

Imbalc is in a week and I have a few practical and contemplative preparations to make - mostly I need to slow down to watch as the wheel of the year shifts. 

We still have a month of winter left, but my thoughts are turning outward, to the garden, our neighborhood, and my community.

Agenda:

1. Practice a Reverent Way of Being

2. Read "The Creativity Book"

3. Make a Creativity Altar

4. Write about my seeds of inspiration

5. Simple projects list

6. Plan a party

7. Bless the bathroom

Little New Year and Third Quarter Moon

Kitchen God I drew a few years ago.

Today is called Little New Year - it falls one week before Chinese New Year. Little New Year is also known as the Kitchen God Festival because this is the day that the Kitchen God, Tsao-wang, and his wife, Wang Bo-jia, leave to report to heaven. A picture of these two gods, printed or drawn on rice paper, hangs in a niche just above the stove in a Chinese home.

This holiday always falls on the waning Third Quarter moon of January or February. Today's waning third quarter moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work, renewal, and self-care.

Agenda today:

1. Renewal plan
2. Evaluation House

3. Monthly journal brainstorm

4. Kitchen God Good-bye Ceremony

5. Make Jiao-zi dumplings 

Babinden

The Slavic holiday Babinden (bah-bean-den) happens each year on January 21. Baba means "grandmother", and the in is possessive; den is "day", so the meaning is "Grandmother’s Day". It’s also called Midwives Day.

Babinden is an ancient festival, still celebrated in Bulgaria, to give thanks and show respect to the women (or men) who have helped in the child-birthing process, and for all the other skills and knowledge the grandmothers have: Growing food, cooking, herb lore, looking after their grandchildren, and teaching folklore and traditions.

The roots of this festival, however, are in fertility rites. In Bulgaria, a house full of healthy and beautiful children is a basic value, and this is the underlying focus of the rituals on Babinden. Fertility is an essential theme of nature, and today I celebrate the place my grandsons have in the great, burgeoning, hope-filled circle of abundance, and my role as one of their care-givers.

Agenda today:
1. Journal queries

2. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

3. Hand-washing ceremony

4. Prayer for grandmothers

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day - Today I am reminded again to honor the ongoing struggle for freedom, equality, and dignity for all people, and share in the efforts.

Agenda for today:

1. Intentions

2. Study

3. March

4. Index to MLK Day projects

Day of Order

My sabbath is a good day to get organized for the week. Order means to "let all your things have their places, and let each part of your business have its time"; today I will take it slow, and ease in to order. 

My perfect sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I don't rush, complain, or worry. Everything I do has a flavor of peace. I schedule some work, but it's work I find fulfilling, or uplifting. Simple is a great word to describe my ideal activities for the sabbath: Simple tasks, simple foods, and an undemanding schedule.

Agenda today:

1. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

2. Start an evening routine

3. Simple steps for health and order

4. Make pitcher of green smoothie

5. Clean and clear the bathroom

Retreat for Inspiration

Saturdays are usually my day of retreat, and on this third Saturday of the new year I plan to be quiet, and open myself to inspiration. Winter is a time of expectation and quiet growth, contemplation of the deep questions of life, and listening for leadings and new ideas; it's essential that I take time to give attention to my Inner Guide.

My query today is, "What are the essential projects I'm led to create this winter?"

Agenda:

1. Retreat day plans

2. Love meditation

3. Read "The Creativity Book"

4. Brainstorm and simple project list

5. Print an inspiration page
6. Living room blessing

Winter Garden

My winter garden is alive and well. It's feeding my ducks, and wild birds, as well as other insects and animals I can't see, and providing us with a handful of greens and beets.

My main focus in January is to plan the next season's garden, and take care of the nature that continues to live here. As always, I'd rather not go into the garden in the rain and the mud, but if I can be strong, get on my rain gear, and take a short daily tour of my garden, I find many simple things to do, without getting too muddy.

The best tip I've read in any permaculture blog is: Be consistent with 15-minutes a day, year round. I try to take a 15-minute walk through my garden each day, and I alternate the front and back gardens so I don't feel rushed. The consistency of the 15-minute daily visit keeps me connected to my garden even when I don't accomplish much.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Serviceberry"

2. January harvest

3. Garden plans

4. January tasks

5. Prune the Grape

Prepare for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is less than 2 weeks away, on January 29th this year. I love having this second opportunity to mark the new year; this one is my "Happy and Lucky" celebration.

In China a whole month is spent in preparations - cleaning, cooking, and decorating the house. All of the things displayed at Chinese New Year are symbols of the ideal life - tokens and reminders of the good things we hope for: Luck, wealth, long life, and happiness.

Agenda this week:
1. Shopping

2. House cleaning

3. Nian-hua and good-luck calligraphy

4. Forced Blossoms
5. Make a Tray of Togetherness

Gratitude

Today I reviewed this intention I set in the fall:

I intend to practice an abundance consciousness; becoming aware of the abundance already in my life, feeling grateful for it, and being open to accepting more of it, because when I believe there’s enough for everybody, I will take it as a challenge to figure out how to make it so; I will work harder to create a bright future for myself, my family, and my world.

Agenda:

1. Love meditation

2. Read "It's a Meaningful Life"

3. Write thank you's

Boy Days

We are caring for our grandsons for over 30 hours a week now, and that requires a great deal of energy, creativity, organization, and patience. I am building all of those carefully, with attention to health and resilience habits, and by being prepared with Grandma projects, outings, and art.

Agenda:

1. Love meditation

2. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

3. Clean and clear the living room

4. Creativity with boys

5. Co-regulation plans

Plow Monday and Full Wolf Moon

Plow Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany, is the traditional day in Europe for farmers to restart their farm work. Our garden isn't large, but, with the ducks, it's like a miniature farm. Normally, it's too wet at this time in the Pacific Northwest to do any digging, but many other tasks are possible, and it's good motivation for me to have this set date each year to start my “farm work”.

 

And tonight is the full moon of January, called atalka - the "Stay Inside Moon" - by the Kalapuya of my area, and the Wolf Moon by others, because of the hungry packs of wolves that used to roam for prey at this time of deep winter. The full Wolf Moon is a good time to ponder what I am hungry for, and how to be resilient.

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon. The full moon shines her light on everything; use the full moon energy for creatively completing things, and for seeing your next moves, and also to CELEBRATE how far you've come and give thanks for the lessons learned and the blessings received.

Agenda for today & this week: 

1. Journal query

2. Vision walk

3. Celebrate stillness

4. Tool blessing ceremony

5. Garden planing

6. Daily garden visits

7. Make Homity Pie

Active Hope

My theme this year is Active Hope.

None of us know what the future holds - what movements might rise up; what a big corporation may suddenly decide to do; what planetary shifts might still occur. But as environmental journalist Arno Kopecky writes in his book “The Environmentalist’s Dilemma”: We are “living on borrowed time. The worst is yet to come.”

Agenda:

1. Review the Divine Laws
2. Prayer candle ceremony
3. Read "Active Hope"

4. Hope and resilience steps

5. Simple steps for health and order
6. Create an intentions ritual

Creativity in the New Year

Creativity is one of my leadings: I’m always hungry to get to work on a project. I feel restless, anxious, and eager to make something- a painting, or embroidery, or anything- just to have busy hands and feel productive and creative. 

And I want to express myself, though that which I want to express is often a mystery- it’s the shadowy and bright life inside me; it’s the big truths and the fleeting feelings of the moment.

I want to be more attentive and intentional about my art-making process and my product; more devoted, thoughtful, open, real, original, and honest. And so I hush and wait for ideas. I hold my heart like an empty bowl, waiting for it to be filled. I let the need to create grow and become an obsession, let myself be anxious, and feel happy for this ravenous feeling! As Eric Maisel says, "Both creating and not creating make me anxious, and I choose the anxiety of creating." I choose to have the anxiety of wanting so badly to make art that I must do it every day.

Agenda Today:
1. Review the Divine Laws
2. Prayer candle ceremony
3. Read "The Creativity Book"
4. Brainstorm and simple project list

6. Practice visualization
7. Kitchen blessing

Winter Nature Culture

Nature-culture is my way to live as part of nature; sharing my resources with those who share theirs (the bees and the birds, etc.); becoming more aware of nature's needs so I can be a better neighbor; changing my habits so I can cause less harm.

My working definition of Nature-culture is "Humans living in unity with nature: acting in ways that create shared spaces that mimic the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems."

I've taken quite a bit off time off from my garden. It doesn't need much from me right now, and I'm not eager to go into the mud. But winter is a great time for observation, planning, and preparation, and today I will find a dry window to take a notebook and a camera outside for an observation session.

Agenda:

Daffodils up, 1-10-25

1. 

Review the Divine Laws

2. Prayer Candle ceremony

3. Read "Serviceberry"

4. Hope and Resilience

5. Bird and butterfly garden planning

6.

 Start a phenology journal

7. Brush and leaves

Winter Days of Love

Christmas is over, and Soyal is winding down. We are settling into our new childcare routine, about 30 hours a week. Most of my friends think that sounds like a lot, but we know that these precious days are short: Next fall Grandson #1 will start kindergarten, and we will see him much less.

Today I want to write a bit about the love I feel for my family, and how to maximize the peace we have when we are together. 

Agenda:

1. Review the Divine Laws

2. Prayer candle ceremony

3. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

4. Love plans for January

5. Plan a birthday retreat

Distaff Day

Woman with distaff in left hand, and spindle in right hand.

Distaff Day (January7) is named for the stick-like tool that holds fibers while a woman uses a drop spindle to spin thread.

Spinning and weaving were never-ending chores for pre-industrial women; most women and girls would spin thread while also cooking, caring for children, or minding the sheep. Because women were seen always with a distaff in hand, it became the symbol of “women’s work”. 

But during the Christmas season women took a break from spinning. January 7th was the traditional day for women to start back to work, and so was called Distaff Day.

Agenda:
1. Journal queries and spindle meditation

2. Review the Divine Laws

3. Prayer candle ceremony

4. Start a fiber project

5. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

6. Clean and clear the kitchen

Epiphany and First Quarter Moon

January 6th is Epiphany, the final day of the Christmas season. This was the day when the three Magi arrived in Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus, and recognized that he would grow up to be a great helper of people.

Epiphany comes from the Greek epiphania, meaning manifestation, or moment of recognition. The Magi had an epiphany - a moment of recognition, when the truth became clear through something simple and striking.

Tonight is also the First Quarter Moon; we are one-quarter of the way through the moon cycle. The moon is waxing - growing in light and energy, creating a time for decisive action and full effort. 

I use this January quarter moon's energy to grow still and listen within.

Agenda for today:

1. Epiphany meditation

2. Review the Divine Laws

3. Prayer candle ceremony

4. Simple steps for health and order

5. Make a full effort plan

6. Bake a King's cake and make a crown

Twelfth Night

The evening of January 5th is called Twelfth Night, the Eve of the Epiphany, the night that the three Magi traveled to Bethlehem to see the newborn baby Jesus.

In Italy, the story goes, the Befana (short for Epiphania) was busy sweeping her floor that night, when the Magi stopped at her house. They invited her to come along with them on their trip to see Jesus but she said she was too busy.

Later she changed her mind and decided to follow, but she couldn’t find them. She continues her search each year on Twelfth Night, flying on a broom, going from house to house and leaving gifts.

Agenda:

1. Review the Divine Laws

2. Prayer candle ceremony

3. Discernment queries

4. Year of Hope and Resilience

5. Resolutions postcard

6. Sweeping

7. Make Focaccia della Befana

8. Leave gifts

Eleventh Day of Christmas

This is the eleventh day of the twelve-day festal tide - we have two days of Christmas left! I celebrate these last days in Sabbath mode, doing as little work as possible, resting, reflecting, and finding peace within.

And it's also still the time of Soyal, a Hopi ceremonial period that begins at the new moon closest to the Winter Solstice and lasts for 16 days. Soyal is short for Soyalangwul, which means Establishing Life Anew for All the World. It's a sacred time of peace and preparation for the new growing season.

Agenda:

1. Review the Divine laws

2. Prayer candle ceremony

3. Read "The Creativity Book"

4. Record some nostalgia