Monday

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and get ready for a week of fun activities with my grandsons. 

Last week at the full moon I discerned a new intention: 

I intend to list clear actionable steps towards paring down, resilience habits, delegation, care-taking, and community-building because the next 2-weeks are our boot camp for the long haul of recovery.

The truth is that I need to control the bits I can control: MY habits, my preparations and negotiations, my integrity and compassion. So, for the next two weeks I'm putting myself through Resilience Boot Camp!

Agenda this week:

1. Create order

2. Health and renewal plans

Mother's Day Rogation Sunday

Today is Mother's Day, and a low-key time for me, now that my daughter is a mother and I am a grandmother!

And it's also Rogation-tide, beginning on the Sunday five weeks after Easter and continuing for four more days, through Ascension Day on Thursday. 

Rogation is an early Christian tradition of singing psalms and chanting prayers of petition for God's protection on crops, beasts and people. Since medieval days, parishioners in Britain would walk around the parish boundaries, bearing a cross and banners, and asking for God to bless the crops, livestock, and fishing holes. The procession was called 'beating the bounds'; it helped everyone to remember the parish boundaries, in the time before maps were commonplace.

These boundary walks were also known as ‘gang days’ from the Anglo Saxon word ‘gangen’- to go. The parish would bond together as a community, offer charity to poor people they met along the way, and the priest would stop to preach at each prominent tree or landmark.

Now Rogation-tide is celebrated more as a time to honor the gift of creation of the land and waters, to offer thanksgiving for the labors on land and water that feed us, and to pray for stewardship of the earth.

Agenda Today:

1. Journal query

2. Mother Meditation

3. Monthly journal brainstorm

4. Brainstorm my summer

5. Cleansing 

6. Beat the bounds

7. Bless my garden

8. Make Rammalation Bisquits

Third Quarter Moon of May (In the Garden)

Tonight is the waning Third Quarter moon of May. Today's 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.

May is a month of flowering and growth. Today I will pause to consider where my growing edge is.

Agenda today:

Agenda: 

1. Meditation and Evaluation Journal

2. Ritual for Release and Realignment

3. May planting

4. Surrender, rest, recuperate

Boot Camp Creativity

I’m in a Resilience Boot Camp this week and today my goal is to define projects and creative practices that aid my resilience, such as mindful doodling & sketching, crochet, playing with clay, photography, and daily "creative rituals" (cooking, rearranging spaces).

I'm reverting to an earlier phase of my life, before painting and art school, when I was internally driven to Make Things, and they were varied and creative. But I'm also a different person now - 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. 

Agenda: 

1. Read "The Book of Doing and Being"

2. Projects for the week

3. Daily boot camp resilience list

4. Generosity practice

Boot Camp Bump Day

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. 

I’m also taking part in a resilience Boot Camp this week and today my goal is to define a narrative for what I need from my community.

Agenda today:

1. My bump plan

2. Read "Perspective"

3. New narrative for community

4. Writing themes and passion flow plan

5. Gratitude meditation

Self-Caregiving Boot Camp

Self-care needs to be a discipline: It takes discipline to do the things that are good for me instead of what feels good in the moment, or just what "needs to get done". Self-care needs doing every day, every week, month in and month out - it’s taking care of myself as a daily practice, so I don't get stressed out, over-committed, over-weight, and over-tired.

Self-care requires tough-mindedness, a deep understanding of my priorities, and respect for myself and the other people in my life. It involves setting boundaries, communicating my needs, and showing up authentically. It involves doing battle with my inner demons — my traumas and addictions.

Of course, with disciplined self care I am able to be a better caregiver and activist for everyone else; I have the energy, health, and focus I need to create transformation in my world.

Tuesday is my day to look at my social and emotional self and make an effort to shift my perspectives around how I view and treat the people in my life.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Achievement Habit"

2. De-stress journal

3. Stress-tamer menu

4. Expressing Needs in the World

5. Daily Boot Camp list so far