Dia de los Muertos

Dia de los Muertos - the Day of the Dead - is a holiday observed in Mexico on November 2. It’s a family time for remembering and honoring dead friends and relatives - a period when the souls of the dead can return for a visit. It’s celebrated with humor, not sadness. 

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and how I will step up for the Natural Living Challenge.

And this is the time of the waning Third Quarter. Today's moon energy is yang, a time for reciprocity, generosity, collaboration and connection; a final time of action before the next moon cycle.

Agenda:

1. Read "Simplify Your Space"

2. Giving each thing a home

3. Health habits

4. Natural Living Challenge

5. Make Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead)
6. Make skeletons
7. Make sugar skulls

Sabbath for Souls and Third Quarter Moon

Today is my Sabbath, and it's also the doorway to the dark half of the Celtic year, the opening of a new cycle. Blótmónað is the word for November in Old English; it means Sacrifice Month, but the sacrifice is joyful, as Persephone goes peacefully down to the underworld every year. Peace is the fruit of total acceptance. 

In November I finally see the circle of life in all its full roundness - as it blossomed in spring and as it dies in fall. November is colder and wetter, drawing me deeper towards winter. This is a month when I celebrate the final fruits of summer’s work, and remember to express my gratitude.

The early Gaels believed that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin at this time of year, and so spirits of the dead could visit the living.

This is the time of year to welcome home the souls of your ancestors. But I definitely feel some angst regarding my relatives who moved here to the "New World" to take it away from the Native Peoples, and who bought into the false American Dream, built on the subjugation and decimation of so many other living beings. 

It has become my custom at this time of year to open my heart to healing the soul connection between me and my ancestors.

Tonight is also the waning Third Quarter. Today's moon energy is yang, a time for reciprocity, generosity, collaboration and connection; a final time of action before the next moon cycle.

Agenda: 

1. Generosity practice

2. Rattle my bones

3. Make Soul Cakes

Halloween

Halloween is the modern name of the ancient Irish and Scottish holiday of Samhain (pronounced SOW-win), a Celtic-Gaelic word meaning “summers-end”. It begins at dusk on October 31, and marks the doorway to the dark half of the Celtic year, the opening of a new cycle.

In the 7th-century CE the Pope established All Saints’ Day, originally on May 13, and in the following century it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve and thus Samhain became Halloween.

The Reformation put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants, although in Britain Halloween continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday. The celebration of Halloween was mostly forbidden among the early American colonists, until the 1800s.

Saturday is my day for proaction: Proaction is taking initiative to anticipate and shape future events rather than simply reacting to circumstances as they happen. Some people think Covey should've just used the word ACT, but proaction requires a thought: "I could do this or I could do that; I choose to do this."

We are in the yin time of the waning gibbous moon - a time to receive the fruits of our labors, a time of quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness.

Agenda Today:

1. Gratitude meditation:

2. Weekly "First Things First"

3. Proaction and reciprocity plans

4. Celebrate the darkness

Friday

Friday is my day for creative thinking and doing; as Grandma Earth Teacher I am led to make things that are a gift to the Earth in some way, sustainable, and with a message. Also, I need to prepare for the next week of after-school time: A calm flow with some repeatable fun learning and ongoing fall projects.

We are in the yin time of the waning gibbous moon - a time to receive the fruits of our labors, a time of quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness.

Agenda:

1. Priority projects plan

2. Grandson plans

3. Project steps and preparedness

4. Family teamwork

5. Love Meditation

Rainy Thursday

Thursday is garden day, for re-envisioning and planning next steps to create a sanctuary here for nature and my family. This is also a day when I have both my grandsons, and I want to be sure to get them into the garden and into nature.

We are in the yin time of the waning gibbous moon - a time to receive the fruits of our labors, a time of quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness.

 

Today:

1. Discern my receptivity

2. October garden tasks

3. This week's garden plan

4. Nature-culture flow and kid projects

5. Make flappy paper bats

Prepare for Halloween

Wednesday is my day to re-group and re-define my week. First I make a plan for getting over the bump of the mid-week, then I re-envision my emotional tone and perspective.

We are at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, the time to harvest what was planted and nurtured. The squirrel moon is a good time to gather my forces inward, for a final burst of energy before winter.

We've been preparing for Halloween, with spooky books, skeletons, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns. Our grandsons love Halloween! The build up this month allows us to shift to a darker phase of the year; darkness isn't bad, but it can be frightening, and having fun with fear is part of the process.

Agenda today:

1. Re-group plan

2. Read "The Exquisite Risk"

3. New narrative for 

4. Problem-solving

5. Writing themes

6. Carve jack-o-lanterns