Mindfulness, Focus, and Choice

Mindfulness is an awareness practice. When I'm feeling anxious, scattered, and ineffective (like I have been), then I can go back to the moment I'm in. Take a deep breath, look around, notice the people, the room, the weather. Touch my heart and notice my feelings in this moment. Just BE for a minute, awake and calm.   

"When I am present centered and mindful rather than in my head (comparing, judging, planning, hoping) time slows down. I am grounded. Living becomes more interesting. I feel my feet as they touch the floor. I notice the sounds, the details, and the nuances. I notice this moment as unique- not part of a pattern, and I feel the inherent joy of being alive."

Agenda:

1. Read "Perspective":
2. Ongo journal

3. Love meditation

Imbalc

Yesterday was Imbalc (pronounced Im-molc), the Celtic Sabbat that falls between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It's celebrated sometime around the first of February, as the "beginning of the end" of winter.

Imbalc means "surrounding belly" - the Earth Mother’s womb; soon the seeds in the womb of the earth will begin to swell and creative forces will begin to come alive in the world.

Imbalc is sacred to Brigid, the European and Celtic goddess of healing, crops, poetry, and creativity. As a sun goddess her powers are light, fire, inspiration, and vital energy: Wow! She’s one of my favorite images of the Spirit.

Brigid is the maiden aspect of the Great Goddess and so her color is white; her symbols are a sun-wheel, Brigid's cross, snake, and cock (herald of the new day).

Agenda for today: 

1. Read "The Spirited Walker"

2. Walking script

3. Make a Brigid's Cross

4. Make Irish seed cake

5. Seed blessing ceremony

6. Have a fire

Full Snow Moon

Tonight is the full moon called the Snow Moon; also called the Atchiulartadsh, or "Out of Food" moon by the local Kalapuya.

Agenda:

1. Vision walk

2. Celebrate receptivity

3. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

4. Ongo journal

5. Love cycle

Tu B’Shevat

Tu B’Shevat (to b’sch VAHT), the Jewish New Year for Trees, begins tonight at sunset, the evening before the full moon. This is the season in Israel when the earliest-blooming trees start a new fruit-bearing cycle. In contemporary Israel it’s celebrated with tree planting ceremonies and a focus on ecological awareness, and a seder (ceremonial meal) of tree fruits.

Agenda: 

1. Tree of Life meditation

2. Plant a tree

3. Intentions for Earth-Care

4. Share a seder meal

Late January Garden

Here we are at the very end of January. I am continuing the tasks of planing the next season's garden, and taking care of the nature that lives 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.

Agenda:

1. Support urban wildlife in winter

2. Garden plans

3. Prune the grape

Drive and Commitment

I'm fully committed to my Nature-Culture project. That means I have let go of caution and am involving myself wholeheartedly (brain, body, and soul) to the service of this project that I love. I'm taking a vacation from my usual way of being, and stretching my whole self beyond the way I’ve always done things.

I am also engaging hyper-drive; I am manifesting my courage, harnessing the power of productive obsession, and engaging slow passion, a kind of simmering energy that keeps me focused on my priorities.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Art of Simple Living"

2. Love cycle

3. Four days of passionate flow