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