New Dragon Moon

Tonight is the new moon; the Chinese call the fifth new moon the Dragon Moon. Chinese dragons are a symbol of cosmic Chi, good fortune, and new beginnings, but the time around the Dragon Moon is strongly yang, with bright sunlight and moist heat. The Chinese consider this to be a dangerous and unhealthy season and have many customs to help to protect against the excessive yang energy. 

The new moon is the start of the lunar cycle, a time of high energy and clear thinking. Historically, the new moon is when women took time to be alone; it's a time to retreat, set intentions, and initiate something new.

I feel strong and effective when I am able to harness my yang energy to get stuff done, but I like to remember that yang's best aim is to protect yin, and yin's best function is to nurture yang; life is good when I have each in a kind of dynamic balance. 

This week I will make an effort to bring a balance of restorative yin energy to my life: Slow down, rest well, drink more water, and practice ‘discipline of purpose’.

Agenda:

1. Retreat Day

2. Choose a month theme

3. Goals and intentions

4. New moon altar and meditation

5. Read "Repacking Your Bags"

6. Blessings Walk

Waning Moon Contentment

And now the moon is waning - getting smaller - until it is new again. During the waning moon, the energy changes, and we move gradually into the yin phase - slow down, go within, and focus on inner work. I back off a bit on actively pursuing my goals, and allow the ease of being a loving, thoughtful person to carry me towards my dreams.

Now that the excitement of the preparations for my son's wedding and celebration with all my extended family (followed by a very fun toddler birthday party) are all behind me, I can settle into contented contemplation of my joyful memories and day-to-day enjoyment of the warmer spring days.

 

Agenda:
1. Read (and Practice) the Happiness Habit

2. Monthly journal brainstorm

3. Surrender, rest, recuperate

4. Toddler Play

Rogation Sunday and Third Quarter Moon

Rogation-tide begins on the Sunday five weeks after Easter and continues 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.

This is also the May Third Quarter Moon: This waning 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 and self-care.

 

Agenda today:
1. Renewal plan for next month

2. Evaluation House

3. Read (and Practice) the Happiness Habit

4. Beat the bounds

5. Bless my garden

6. Make Rammalation Biscuits:

Happy Birthday!

This week my grandson had his 2nd birthday, and we celebrated with great joy!

Agenda:

1. Read (and Practice) the Happiness Habit

2. Plan and prepare for a party

3. Celebrate a birthday!

Full Flower Moon and Wesak

Tonight is the full moon called atantal, the "camas blooming time" by the Kalapuya of our area, and the Flower Moon by others, because - well - May flowers! The full Flower Moon is a good time to think about a promise of abundance, and blossoming into our full potential.

The flowers in my garden are a delicate reminder to me to project a gentle, honest spirit (less cactus, more pansy).

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the shift to the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon.

Today is also Wesak (pronounced way-sak). The full moon in May is the day that Buddhists honor the birth of Gautama Buddha in Lumbini, Nepal, in 623 BCE, and also honor his enlightenment and death. Buddhists all over the world celebrate this day by pausing to remember the Buddha's virtues, expressing their gratitude and appreciation for his teachings, and by finding ways to be more Buddha-like.

Agenda Today: 

1. Take a vision walk

2. Celebrate joy

3. Gratitude practice

4. Read (and Practice) the Happiness Habit

5. Find ways to be more Buddha-like

6. Make a lantern for Wesak
7. Cook Hath Maaluwa (Seven Vegetables Curry)

The Happiness Habit

My focus this May is joy, contentment, self expression and play, and so this month I've been blogging some of my ideas on this subject. And because I'm preparing to go to my son's wedding this week, I'm especially looking at how to feel content in a crowd - not an easy ask. 

Agenda this Month:

1. Read (and Practice) the Happiness Habit

2. Celebrate the good bits

May Sabbath for Joy

Today is my Sabbath. It's been a few weeks since I last had an entire day that was unscheduled. In the best world, everyone would have one whole day each week to spend as we want; to stay in bed, read a good book, take a slow walk or do a crossword; one whole day to do no work, run no errands, send no emails, and clean no toilets.

My focus this May is joy, contentment, self expression and play, and I've been sharing some of my ideas on this subject. Most of us would say that we don't regularly feel joyful; it seems like such a big emotion. Joy comes in little splashes that come and go so fast we hardly recognize them.

But when you begin to invite those moments, and relish them -

(like the walk I took with my grandson, when he found a bed of dandelions in seed, and I watched as he gleefully shook loose every seed head he saw, and I felt relaxed and lifted up with his play)

and then you relive them by telling the story - that moment of joy stays with you, and carries you a long way.

Agenda today:

1. Keeping the Sabbath (and Mother's Day)

2. Read (and Practice) the Happiness Habit

3. Express myself

4. Our huge garden project update

Mother's Day and First Quarter Moon

Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870 

“Arise then...women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe our dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace... each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God - 

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality, may be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient and the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.” ~ Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe was a writer and a suffragette. She wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” in 1870 to promote world peace. In 1873 she campaigned (unsuccessfully) for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2. Other women also worked to promote a national Mother's Day, but Julia's approach is my favorite.

Photo by Alan Gillespie

At the First Quarter Moon we are one-quarter of the way through the moon cycle. The moon is waxing - growing in light and energy, creating a time for decisive action.

I use this May quarter moon's energy to find joy in just being alive.

Agenda:
1. Journal queries

2. Make a full effort plan

3. Write a mission haiku

4. Practice visualization

5. Call my Mom

May Joy

My focus this May is joy, contentment, self expression and play, and so this month I'm going to blog some of my ideas on this subject. 

Joy is a deep feeling, maybe too much to expect, a little over the top; most days I'm satisfied to feel calm and grounded, perhaps even mostly happy. But I think when we open to the possibility of feeling joyful we set the tone of the day to one of playful expectation. 

I'm not a bubbly person, but I have optimism: Even when things look bleak (which, let's face it, they generally do) I am able to get on with life. I do not advocate for "finding the silver lining" very often, because that is generally an exercise in denial of the full catastrophe we are in; what I do is acknowledge how crummy things are, then go ahead and celebrate the good bits.

Agenda this Month:

1. Read (and Practice) the Happiness Habit

2. Express myself

3. Celebrate the good bits

May Day

May Day, on May 1st, is a spring celebration of the blooming flowers. Maying is what we call the things we do to celebrate this beautiful month-- going on picnics, picking flowers, dancing around a maypole, and sharing our love.

May Day is an ancient holiday stemming from the festival of Floralia which honored Flora, the Flourishing One, the Roman goddess of spring. Flora is a bright nature goddess who makes trees bloom- she is a “lady of pleasure", but also a symbol of motherhood. She wears a garland of flowers in her hair, and in her right hand she holds a columbine, for fertility. 

In England a young woman is chosen as May Queen, representing Flora, and is crowned with hawthorn blossoms. She is often accompanied by a May King.

Agenda:
1. Prepare a Beltane fire
2. Bring in the May
3. May baskets
4. Make Tippaleivät (Finnish May Day Fritters)
5. Maypole Dances