New Peony Moon

Tonight is the new moon; the Chinese call the fourth new moon the Peony Moon. 

Peonies are the flower of riches, romance, and honor, called sho yu in Chinese, which means "most beautiful." Their lush blooms are an omen of good fortune, and also foretell a happy marriage.

This is the season of blossoming into abundance; I open myself to the receipt of gifts, and try to be fully awake to all that each moment holds. 

Beautiful peonies growing in my neighborhood.

Agenda for today: 
1. Journal: 

The new moon is my monthly time for “seeding” intentions. I write down what I hope to focus on in the next 30 days or so, and then give my ideas a period of gestation, like seeds in the soil, before I take action. Having this regular time each month to focus my goals has helped to give me clarity of purpose.

What might give my life more wholeness?
What is the root of my contentment?
How might I be more awake to the gifts each moment offers?

2. Set intentions:
My theme this month is joy: contentment, pleasant feelings, serenity, satisfaction, and harmony within and without. It’s this childlike quality of joy that supports my spontaneous, innovative, creative spirit. Also, my joyous mood is infectious and brings success with the relationships in my life.

List my intentions for the next month in these areas-
Self, Friends and Family, Teaching, Artwork, Writing, Home and Garden, Work/Business, and Volunteer work.

3. New Moon Meditation:
Light a small white candle. Center, and feel myself fill with thankfulness for all I have now in my life.

Butterfly lavender in my front yard.

4. Prepare for a garden party: 

As the moon waxes, I expand-- plant seeds, make connections, and begin new projects. Today I will plan my first small steps.

In China this is the start of the season of garden parties, especially for the purpose of peony viewing. I don't have any peonies to view, but I will have many opportunities to share my garden with friends and family this month, as we have a May wedding coming!

Sabbath for Earth

Today is Sunday, which I celebrate as my Sabbath, meaning that I keep it simple, slow-paced, and peaceful. I take time out from busy-ness so I can practice deepening my inner life.

To continue with Earth Week a little longer, today I plan to explore earth as a sacred element; as the stone and the garden, the endless circle of life and death, and our Great Mother. 

When I embrace the earth as the Sacred Mother how could I pollute her? Everything is alive and everything is my family.

Sabbath Plan:
1. All Day Meditation:

I begin my celebration of the Sabbath right away when I awaken-- I pause before jumping out of bed to remember God, and acknowledge that I have God within. I hold that remembering through the day, lightly, like a flower. I remember to smile and allow love to shine.

2. Altar: 

Today I add a stone to my altar, for the patience and strength of the earth.

3. Weeding Meditation: 

The Earth is my Mother. I have an agreement with her that I will respect and care for the little piece of her I own. I try to remember to enter the garden with humility, and plant it and work in it with reverent regard. 

Today I will choose one area to work in and pull weeds with rapt attention- notice the bugs and worms, leaves that are chewed, bulbs coming up, the texture of the soil... Feel the joy that plants feel as the soil is loosened around them and they have room to expand!

Earth Week

Earth Day is coming up on Friday, and I plan to celebrate this whole week as Earth Week.

The first Earth Day was in 1970 and it still remains a big event in the environmental movement. Interest and participation in Earth Day has increased and spread around the world, with millions of people taking part. 

I do many things everyday in my life to help the earth: I live in a small house; I walk and bike, and work at home; I buy used stuff and buy locally (to reduce fuel used for transportation); I use the library instead of buying books; I compost, recycle, and grow my own food... 

But it’s alright to ask myself “What more could I do?”

Yes, it’s often more expensive to be environmentally conscientious, but I know that my purchasing decisions have an impact on ecosystems. The companies that produce and sell products depend on my dollars, so they will listen and react to my behavior. Also, my health and my family’s health is at risk! I need to keep my priorities straight. And I need to stretch my limits to action.

Agenda this week:

"Come on, Mom, let's go!"

1. Earth Week petition walks:
I know I will be out walking every morning with my girl Sadie!

I hope to say this prayer of petition each day on my walk:

That the Earth be cared for, I pray.
That we learn to live simply and lightly on the Earth, I pray.
That we stop poisoning the soil and seas, I pray.
That global warming is halted and reversed, I pray.
That protection of the Earth becomes the political priority, I pray.
Amen.

2. Clean the neighbor-hood: 

I also plan to take a garbage bag with me as I walk in the mornings and go down a different alley each day.

3. Buy less meat:
Industrial meat production creates nasty waste and health problems. I went mostly meatless during Lent this year, so I feel confident that I can continue that practice a while longer.

4. Research recycling, and teach:
I'm in charge of recycling at my church and it always amazes me what people put in there! (It's called "wishful recycling"-- I want this to be recyclable, so I will put it into the bin, and then it is recyclable...)

We have a co-mingle system in our town, and unfortunately, all the trash in the recycle bins causes machinery shut downs and equipment damage at the sorting plant. Also, a lot of trash slips into the bundles of recycled materials and is passed on to the mills.

Last year I wrote a paper called "Why should I follow co-mingling rules?" and today I will reprint it and pass it on to my congregation.

5. Plant more flowers:

6. Make Earth Cookies: 

I got this idea from the Almost Unschoolers blog. One correction, though: She says the earth is about 70% water, but it's the earth's surface that is 71% water, not the earth itself. That percentage works fine for these cookies which only show the earth's surface anyway!

Ingredients:

• 2-3/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1-c. butter
• 1-1/2 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• food color
• 3 tsp. baking cocoa

Yield: 2 dozen cookies-

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in an egg. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.

3. Divide the dough and color three-quarters of it blue by kneading food color in with your fingers. Color one-eighth green and one-eighth brown with a few teaspoons of baking cocoa.

4. Roll balls of blue dough and add bits of green and brown for the land masses.

5. Place onto lightly oiled cookie sheets and press a little to slightly flatten. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Let stand on cookie sheet for two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Easter

Easter is the most important and joyful of all Christian holy days because it marks the resurrection of Jesus. Easter always comes after the spring equinox, when lots of things in nature are returning to life. Specifically, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full Moon on or just after the equinox. The English word Easter comes from the Old English Eastre, which was the name for the spring season.

Easter is the penultimate time of hope, renewal and new life, which is at the heart of the message that Christians wish to proclaim and live in the world. I see this as a reminder to live each day as a new day, and to have faith that the actions I take will have transforming power in the world.

Agenda today:

1. Greet the Easter sunrise with joy
To the old pagan tribes of northern Europe, spring was the time of the triumphant sun, the sun reborn to light the dark valleys. It has been a tradition since the Middle Age for folks to gather on hilltops to watch the sunrise on Easter morning. According to legend, the rising sun dances on Easter morning to honor Jesus’ resurrection. 

I have very deep memories of the walk up Coxcomb Hill on Easter morning to see the sunrise, followed by breakfast at our house for anyone from our church who cared to come, and a big egg hunt for us kids.

2. Put on new clothes to symbolize new life

3. Hunt for Easter eggs

Great Saturday

Today is also called Holy Saturday, the day between Jesus' death and resurrection. In the Church, it's celebrated with watchful expectation and funeral hymns.

This is the day that our family usually dyes eggs.
Eggs are part of the spring celebrations of people all over the world. It is a fact of science that bird eggs are laid only after the eye of the female bird is stimulated by more than twelve hours of light per day, which doesn’t happen until springtime approaches. The people of long ago noticed the connection between eggs and warmer days, and so the egg became a symbol of spring. Folks began to color and pattern eggs, and trade them during their spring festivals. They may have thought that eggs were a charm that helped the sun to grow warmer.

Eggs universally symbolize birth and potential. For Christians at Easter, eggs stand for hope, and spiritual rebirth.

Agenda today:
1. Make natural egg dyes:

Tumeric = gold, onion skins = red-orange, red cabbage = moss green.

I have three favorite natural egg dyes, made with onion skins, red cabbage, and turmeric. 

Ingredients: 

• 2 c. dried onion skins (collect from the bottom of store onion bins)
• 1/2 red cabbage
• 2 Tbsp. turmeric
• 1 tsp. alum
• 2 Tbsp. vinegar
• raw eggs

1. Start three pots of water boiling, and add the onion skins to one, the red cabbage (chopped up a bit) to another and about 2 Tbsp. of turmeric to the third.

2. After the pots boil for an hour, add 1 tsp. alum to the cabbage, and 1 Tbsp. vinegar to the other two.

3. Now you can add eggs and simmer for 20 minutes.

2. Make cascaróne eggs: 
Mexican children make a large number of cascarónes at Carnival, Easter, and also at birthdays and weddings. These confetti-filled eggs are easy to make, and then you sneak up on someone, holding a cascaróne hidden in your hand, and smash it (gently) on your victim’s head like a miniature piñata!


To see how to make these visit my Dragonfly Studio web page.

3. Dye pysanky eggs: 

In Eastern Europe eggs are decorated with the wax resist method. Very complex designs are created with many layers of wax and dye. People give pysanky to friends at Easter as a good-luck token.

I try to make a new pysanky each year to hang on my egg tree. 

Supplies: eggs (check for cracks), vinegar, Ukrainian egg dyes, small candle, a large potato, a large bent spoon, beeswax, pencils, paper, old paint brush, a finishing nail, kitska (optional), paper towels, large candle, beads, string, scissors, big needles

My potato and spoon wax-melting system.

1- Warm eggs to room temperature and clean with diluted vinegar- dab dry without rubbing. Also mix up the Ukrainian egg dyes as directed.

2- Set up half a potato with a bent spoon (this an old-fashioned way to heat wax that I like!) 

Put a candle under the spoon and add some bits of dark beeswax- I use shavings from the end of a beeswax candle; beeswax sticks best to the egg, and dark beeswax is easiest to see as you apply it.

Using a brush

3-  Experiment with the waxing technique on an egg: Light the candle and melt the wax (You may need to adjust the height of the spoon to get the wax to melt). 

Use a brush or the head of a finishing nail (or a kitska) to apply wax to the egg.

Using a kitska.

The wax must be hot to stick, but if it starts to smoke, swivel the potato to move the spoon off the heat.

4- After you get the hang of it, look at traditional designs and symbols in a book or online. Here is one helpful site. Draw ideas on paper and plan the colors.

• Designs are usually symmetrical. 
• You can segment the egg with pencil (use rubber bands to draw straight circles). 
• As you plan the colors, remember they will mix- so a yellow egg dyed blue may end up greenish, and a pink egg dyed blue may end up purple.

5- Begin by waxing all the white areas, and dye with the lightest color: Soak in a dye pot for 5-20 minutes.

Dry the egg on a paper towel, wax again, and dye again- until all the colors are applied.

6- Remove wax: Hold the egg at the side of a candle flame and wipe clean.

7- Blow the egg out. Tie a bead to end of string, thread through egg, and tie a loop to hang.

Good Friday

This is the anniversary of Jesus’ death and burial. Today I reflect on desperation and despair. I remember again that the soul's "dark night" is a part of the human condition. 

My capacity to experience despair is a gift; through it I am transformed. Jesus said, "You must be born again." (John 3:7). The ability to shift from despair to hope is how I get the strength to live life whatever the daily deaths I might face.

Agenda today:

1. Darkness Meditation:
Everyone has periods and circumstances of despair. I remember quite clearly when I was laying in the emergency room on a table, with broken ribs and shoulder, and everyone left, probably to help someone else. I had been strong until then, but during that 45 minutes when I was alone I succumbed to self-pity, pain, and loneliness pretty quickly.

Remember, for a few minutes, what it was like to be sad and in misery. Center on that feeling for a while- feeling alone, even feeling no connection to Spirit. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Hold that feeling and take several slow breaths.


Now discover again that connection to the Divine; remember that you have experienced great joy, and remember that you will again. Relax into a feeling of light and hope. Feel a glow slowly fill you, as dawn fills the sky, and then extend light to family, to friends, to neighbors, to strangers, and to all others who are in darkness now.

2. Bake hot cross buns:
The hot cross bun is probably the oldest of the many English buns. It was originally eaten only on Good Friday. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries street cries were commonly heard on Good Friday:

"Hot Cross buns, Hot Cross buns, One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross buns!”

You are supposed to keep one bun all year to insure that all the bread you bake is perfect (and as a charm against shipwreck).

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c. unsalted butter
• 1 c. milk
• 2 pkg. yeast
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3 c. white flour
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. each nutmeg and allspice
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 c. plumped currants
• 1/2 c. sultana raisins
• 2 tsp. minced orange rind
• 1 egg white + 1 tsp. water
• powdered sugar frosting

Yield: 1-dozen buns-

1- Melt the butter. Heat the milk to just boiling. Whisk in the butter and sugar, then cool to 105ºF. Add yeast, salt and eggs.

2- Add flour and spices, and mix  to make a soft dough.

3- Knead for 5-7 minutes (I used my Kitchen-aid). Dust in more flour if needed. When dough is smooth knead in the plumped currants, sultana raisins, and minced orange rind.

4- Shape dough into a ball, cover with a towel, and let rest for about 20 minutes.

5- Divide the dough into 12 pieces and shape into balls. Place the buns on a lightly greased baking sheet about one inch apart. Using floured scissors, snip a cross on the top of each bun about 1/2-inch deep. Brush with egg white glaze. Let rest about 25 minutes or until buns look puffy and light.

6- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Place the buns in the oven and reduce heat to 350°. Bake for 17-20 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Remove from the oven. When cool, apply a cross of white frosting.