2023 Lent Calendar, Week Two

My theme for Lent this year is Being Rooted in Creation: Being rooted means I have a secure sense of who I am and where I belong; I am firmly planted, sunk in, feet on the ground, and the earth is steady. Roots are our connection to the deeper places in our souls, to the past, and to the land we live on.

To be rooted means I belong here, strong and grounded in Love, Truth, and Creation, solidly living in the Now, connected to the Divine Whole, and radiant in peace, in health and resilience. It means I belong in my home, my family, and in my community, I'm integrated and whole.

At Lent I allow myself to be slow, simple, and thoughtful. I spend time each day in focused study and prayer. This Lent, I plan to study nature like I would prepare to visit a foreign country - learn the language of my bird and plant neighbors, and continue to explore my relationship to the natural world, the cycles of the seasons, and the history, culture, and ecosystem of my valley.

And I also observe Lent as a time of creative action, acting on my leading to become more rooted in Creation with small and large actions at home and in my community, and by sharing Medicine Art projects with my grandson and others.

My intentions this year are to:

• Read and Journal: I intend to learn more about the nature in my own backyard, starting with a dive into various web sites, and will also keep a daily nature journal with notes about the weather and things I notice.
• Explore resilience practices: I'm also reading from the book, "101 Mindful Ways to Build Resilience," by Donald Altman, which offers simple ideas for being more rooted in my body and mind.
• Take creative action: In the weeks of Lent, I intend to act on my leading to become more rooted in Creation by
• Tending my garden (and letting it tend me)
• Building habitat for plant and animal people
• Supporting and working directly on campaigns to defend the environment
• Witnessing to others with writing, talking, and artwork.
• Fast: This year, like last year, I intend to fast from all new single-use plastic, and continue to experiment with plastic alternatives. I'm also going to witness to why plastic production is so dangerous, and why we need to slow it down.

Clean Monday and First Quarter Moon

Today is known as Clean Monday in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The clean originally referred to the purification of the soul for Lent. Today it's customary to clean the house thoroughly, and, in Greece, people go on picnics, eat shellfish, and fly kites!

It's also 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 end-of-February quarter moon's energy to be really present in my body, and do the work - less dreaming and more creating, digging, cleaning, writing, biking, and playing!

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries

2. Nature Mentor 

3. Make a Full Effort Plan

4. Prayer of Cleansing

5. Kitchen cleaning

6. Plastic fast

7. Make Laguna (flat bread)

Forgiveness Sunday

Today is Forgiveness Sunday in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It's officially the last day of the Maslenitsa festival in Russia. Lent starts tomorrow, on Clean Monday, in both the Russian and Greek churches.

Agenda:

1. Nature Mentor

2. Resilience Practice

3. Ask forgiveness and offer forgiveness

4. Make tyropita (cheese pie)

5. Plastic fast, Week 2 - Food shopping

2023 Lent Calendar, Week One

My theme for Lent this year is Being Rooted in Creation: Being rooted means I have a secure sense of who I am and where I belong; I am firmly planted, sunk in, feet on the ground, and the earth is steady. Roots are our connection to the deeper places in our souls, to the past, and to the land we live on.

To be rooted means I belong here, strong and grounded in Love, Truth, and Creation, solidly living in the Now, connected to the Divine Whole, and radiant in peace, in health and resilience. It means I belong in my home, my family, and in my community, I'm integrated and whole.

At Lent I allow myself to be slow, simple, and thoughtful. I spend time each day in focused study and prayer. This Lent, I plan to study nature like I would prepare to visit a foreign country - learn the language of my bird and plant neighbors, and continue to explore my relationship to the natural world, the cycles of the seasons, and the history, culture, and ecosystem of my valley.

And I also observe Lent as a time of creative action, acting on my leading to become more rooted in Creation with small and large actions at home and in my community, and by sharing Medicine Art projects with my grandson and others.

My intentions this year are to:

• Read and Journal: I intend to learn more about the nature in my own backyard, starting with a dive into various web sites, and will also keep a daily nature journal with notes about the weather and things I notice.
• Explore resilience practices: I'm also reading from the book, "101 Mindful Ways to Build Resilience," by Donald Altman, which offers simple ideas for being more rooted in my body and mind.
• Take creative action: In the weeks of Lent, I intend to act on my leading to become more rooted in Creation by
• Tending my garden (and letting it tend me)
• Building habitat for plant and animal people
• Supporting and working directly on campaigns to defend the environment
• Witnessing to others with writing, talking, and artwork.
• Fast: This year, like last year, I intend to fast from all new single-use plastic, and continue to experiment with plastic alternatives. I'm also going to witness to why plastic production is so dangerous, and why we need to slow it down.

Ash Wednesday and Pea Planting Day

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, a 46-day period of preparation for the joyful Easter celebration. The word lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, which means "lengthen"; it refers to the longer days of spring. 

Lent is about mortality and transformation; death and rebirth. Marcus Borg says, "It means dying to an old way of being, and being born into a new way of being, a way of being centered once again in God."

And Pea Planting Day is a special anniversary for us. February 22 is listed on my planting calendar as the first day to plant peas in the Willamette Valley; it also happens that this is the day W and I got engaged to each other, 47 years ago!

Peas are traditionally the first vegetable sown outside in the spring because they will germinate and grow in very cool soil. We plant peas today to ceremonially kick off the start of the planting season, and also to remind ourselves of the beginnings of our relationship; the day we decided to be together forever.

Agenda:

1. Read Nature Mentor

2. Resilience practice

3. Begin plastic fasting

4. Hang up the Lent Lady

5. Pea planting ceremony

6. Permaculture pea tips

7. Make a pea label

Mardi Gras

Today is Mardi Gras, which is French for Fat Tuesday - also called Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday. We've come to the end of the season of Carnival, which starts on Epiphany (January 6) and ends at Lent. Fat Tuesday is always 47 days before Easter Sunday.

Agenda Today:

1. Word #5 - Discernment

2. Choose a theme for Lent

3. Set intentions for Lent

4. Prepare to fast from plastic

5. Make carnival corn soup

6. Make a screen mask

Maslenitsa

Maslenitsa (масленица) is the oldest of all Russian holidays. It began as a spring equinox festival called Jarilo, named for the Slavic god of the vegetation and spring. Later it became a Christian holiday, starting on the Monday one week before the Eastern Orthodox Lent. 

Maslenitsa is the Russian version of Carnival, with eating, drinking, sledding, games, and costume parades. Like many spring festivals it's a melding of Christianity and Earth Religion, and all of its events still focus on driving away the winter and re-awakening nature.

In Russia, Maslenitsa lasts the entire week, and ends with Forgiveness Sunday, the day before the start of Orthodox Lent, on Clean Monday (February 27th this year).

Agenda:

1. Make an effigy doll
2. Make blini pancakes

New Budding Moon and Maha Shivratri

Tonight is the new moon; the Chinese call the second new moon the Budding Moon. As we cycle nearer to spring, I can feel my energy growing and swelling like the buds on the trees! 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, prepare, and set intentions.

Shiva, Crafts Museum, New Delhi

Tonight is also Maha Shivratri, a Hindu festival which falls each year on the night of the new moon in the Hindu month of Phalgun (in February or March). The Sanskrit word ratri means night, and maha means great, so Maha Shivratri is the night to honor the great Shiva, for his dance of primordial creation, preservation, and destruction.

Many Hindus keep a fast all day, make offerings of flowers and incense, and chant to Shiva. They vigil all night, sing songs, and dance to the rhythm of the drums.

Agenda Today:

1. Retreat Day

2. Mantra

3. Choose a month theme 

4. Choose goals and set intentions

5.  New moon altar and meditation

6. Make Thandai

Winter Transitions Retreat

Winter is beginning to wain; though we are having very cold nights and icy mornings, I see more and more greenery, and bulbs are popping up. Winter is making a slow transition to spring.

Also, the new moon is coming, and Lent. I'm on the cusp of a new phase of study and action; it's time to sum up what I've learned about receptivity, and prepare for a shift. Today I will take a retreat for transitions.

1. Read about loving kindness

2. Manage my strengths

3. Ponder the Relationship Dance

4. Prepare for Lent

5. Prepare to plant

Nirvana Day

Today is Nirvana Day, the celebration of Buddha's death at the age of 80, at around 487 BCE. It's celebrated in East Asia on February 15th, or on February 8th by some.

Buddhists celebrate the date of the death of the Buddha, because death is when the soul is released from the body to experience Nirvana. The word Nirvana means "to extinguish", but it's really more of a transformation to a new kind of existence.

Nirvana is usually described as a state of bliss or peace, and a release from all physical suffering. The Buddha taught that Nirvana was beyond human imagination, and so speculation about what Nirvana is like is considered by some to be foolish.

Agenda for today:

1. Read the Buddha's teachings

2. Open to uncertainty
3. Bodhisattva practices
4. Eat a Buddha bowl

Valentine's Day

Saint Valentine was a third-century Roman Christian who died on February 14. The poet Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle probably invented many of the romantic legends about Saint Valentine, in the fourteenth century. 

Valentine made by a student of mine.

After that, it became a custom for a man to write a romantic poem to send to his beloved on St. Valentine's Day. Very fancy paper cards, with lace and ribbons, became popular in the 1840's, and that custom expanded into sending cards to Mom and Dad, and friends of all kinds.

Agenda today:
1. True Love

2. Brainstorm generosity practices
3. Make Valentines

February Third Quarter Moon

Photo by Alan Gillespie

Today is the 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

2. Evaluation House

3. Monthly journal brainstorm

4. Surrender, rest, recuperate

February Order

Humans love to create order out of chaos! It's one thing we do well. Life is filled with chaos, disorder and confusion, messiness, uncertainty, and misunderstanding; that's natural and normal. Order and chaos are fluid and interconnected: Order exists within chaos, and chaos exists within order.

Creating order when you can is a form of power; orderly habits and an orderly mind will bring you clarity and peace. Creating order is ground work: Put the order in place first, then everything that follows will flow more smoothly, and when chaos inevitably happen your orderly mind will be free to handle it with equanimity.

You cannot completely organize the chaos in your life but you can create a balance between the two, finding stability with order and using chaos as an impetus for growth. Too much order borders on obsession - I can accept that a certain amount of disorder is healthy and normal, and aim for just enough order to feel like I'm creating meaning, and accomplishing many of my priorities. (I wrote a whole book on this topic, called "Get Your Ducks in a Row." )

Agenda:

1. Habits of an orderly mind

2. My integrity plan

3. Re-order my time and priorities

4. Household order

5. February organizing tips

Thorrablót

Winter- acrylic on canvas

Thorrablót (pronounced THORR-a-blote) is a mid-winter festival celebrated in Iceland and Norway. Thorri is the name of the fourth month of winter in the old Icelandic calendar, and a blót is a feast.

Thorri might have been named for Thor, the Norse god of thunder, or for a legendary King of Norway. Now in Iceland Thorri is known as "King Winter", and is depicted as an old grey man, kind to some and harsh to others. All of wintertime is referred to as "King Winter" in Iceland and in Norway ... I guess with a winter as exceptional as theirs it’s not surprising that it has a personality!

The Thorrablót can happen any time in the next several weeks. In Iceland and Norway this is the coldest part of winter- no thaw yet in sight. Here in our valley we are also experiencing a cold spell, with snow predicted, so this is a good time for a King Winter Feast!

Agenda:
1. Gather family and make a toast
2. Have a pickle feast
3. Play Kubb
4. Help those with no homes

St. Dorothy's Day

St. Dorothy lived in Caesarea in central Turkey, around the year 313 AD. She was tried for refusing to worship idols, and a mocking lawyer asked her to send him fruit from the garden of Paradise. In response to her prayer, an angel appeared and presented three roses and three apples.

"And then said the holy virgin with a glad semblant: Do to me what torment thou wilt, for I am all ready to suffer it for the love of my spouse Jesu Christ, in whose garden full of delices I have gathered roses, spices, and apples."

Because of this, she is the patron of gardeners. Also of brides, and brewers.

Agenda Today:

1. Garden journal queries

2. Garden visualization & plan

3. Work outside!

Full Snow Moon and Lantern Festival

Photo by Alan Gillespie

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

We've not had any snow this month, and we are not out of food, but it is a lean time: Lean on light, barren garden beds, and (still) not much social interaction.

Tonight is also Yuan Xiao, the 15th and last day of the Chinese New Year Festival. Yuan xiao means "first night", meaning the first time that the full moon is seen in the New Year. This festival's other name is the Lantern Festival, because folks will make or buy lanterns of all kinds - shaped like flowers, or boats, or birds; made of bamboo, silk or paper; decorated with paintings, embroidery, paper cuts, tassels, and fringe - and tonight everyone takes to the streets to display their lanterns. It’s like a carnival: Children dress in costumes and watch parades with lighted floats, fireworks displays, puppet shows, and dances.

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon. The February Full Moon is a good time to ponder what new seeds you want to invite into your life.

Agenda for today:

1. Vision walk

2. Celebrate receptivity

3. Read about loving-kindness

4. Make tang yuan, sweet dumplings
5. Hang a lantern
6. Riddle guessing

February Thoughts

February is a month of expectation and quiet growth. The grey veil of winter is still in place, but tinged with pink around the edges and exciting with potential. My dreams may still be dormant, but I can feel them swelling, ready to burst into bloom. I have great hopes for this spring!

The cold, wet days of February are perfect for prayer, reading, writing, contemplation of the deep questions of life, and listening for leadings and inspirations. It's time, though, to step out of the cloister a little and gently re-enter the world of personal relationships. In February I consider love, family, and friendships, as well as self-love and care.

February is also a time of clearing away the excess to make room for growth. I prune my trees, I prune out clutter in my home, and in my heart and my mind. The weather can be frustrating, though; I long to get outside to dig and to feel the sun! I need patience - I know the seeds are growing underground and the ideas are growing in my heart - warmth and sustenance will bring the growth I want.

Agenda:
1. February queries

2. Read It's a Meaningful Life
3. Vow practice

4. Household order

Imbalc

Today is 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.

Agenda for today: 

1. Make a creativity altar

2. Seeds of inspiration

3. Seed blessing ceremony

4. Make a Brigid's Cross

5. Make Irish seed cake

6. Have a fire