Extend Love

I've spent this month contemplating love and receptivity, because my purpose on earth is to grow in love; my world needs more love. With more love, we could do away with war - we would have no prejudice, oppression, or violence of any kind. Everyone would have enough food because we would feed each other. We would care for the environment because we love our planet, and the animals, and our children too much to harm it. 

How, then, do I create more love in the world? I simply need to open my heart wide as often as I can, wider and wider, calmly throw open the door to love. And take note of the times when I close my heart down (when I remember the pain of not receiving love, try to protect myself from more pain, adopt a attitude that is unforgiving and narrow- “I won’t love because I wasn’t loved.”)

Love is energy. I can produce the energy of love and extend it to the world so that it grows out from me in ripples. We can never have too much love in the world, and I trust in love to save us all.

Agenda today:

1. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

2. Practice mindfulness of breathing 

3. Review Essential Intentions

4. Choose goals and set intentions

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

5.  New moon altar and meditation

6. Make Thandai

Hope in the Dark

Active Hope is one of my themes for Lent, which is coming up next week, and I want to have a clear idea of what that involves. It requires that I:

• maintain a clear view of reality; 
• identify what I hope for - the direction I’d like things to move in and the values I'd like to express; 
• and take steps to move in that direction.

First nasturtium, February 25, 2025

Agenda today:

1. Read "Hope in the Dark"

2. Review Essential Intentions

Simple Living

I've been working at creating order in our house, by building habits of simplicity and orderliness, because creating a peaceful and efficient sanctuary creates a feeling of stability which is a basic practice of resilience.

And besides that, habits of simplicity and order aid me in reducing my consumption, and using only my share of the earth’s resources, which is the honorable and sustainable thing to do, and is one way that I show reverence for the Earth and for God. 

Agenda:

1. Read "One Year to an Organized Life":

2. Clean and clear the bedrooms
3. Simple steps for health

4. Review essential intentions

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. Choose a theme for Lent

2. Set intentions for Lent

2. Make an effigy doll

2. Make blini pancakes

Sabbath for Divine Love

I believe that God is Love; I long to feel that Light of Divine Love more often; be in that place of bliss and peace, where I have a sense of unity with all creation; where I have a sense of being pure Love.

I have many small experiences of God - an instinct or intuition, receipt of a gift from the universe, a feeling of insight, or inspiration. It’s tantalizing, and I yearn for more-- I want to (more often) expand outside the physical me to the place where I touch God; I want to be more aware of God as Spirit, as Friend, and more aware of BEING God. As a seeker, I will practice until my brain unfolds into a little more Light.

“Why do we Love? We love because at every moment we are pinched with hunger to realize the highest, to feel the inmost, to be consciously one with the universe; with the universal Truth, Light, Peace and Bliss, and to be completely fulfilled.” ~Sri Chinmoy

 Agenda Today:

1. Read "Everyday Simplicity"

2. Love mantra
3. Simple project list

4. Resilience skills plan

5. Review essential intentions

Pea Planting Day

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, 49 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 "The Serviceberry"

2. Review essential intentions

3. Pea planting ceremony

4. Permaculture pea tips

5. Penology Journal

Third Quarter Moon of Late February

Tonight is the waning Third Quarter moon of February. 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.

I relish this calm time before the busy-ness of March; time to make plans, study, and renew my spirit. 

Agenda today:

1. Read "It's a Meaningful Life"

2. Renewal plan
3. Evaluation House

4. Monthly journal brainstorm

5. Review essential intentions

6. Surrender, rest, recuperate

What Comes Next: Love Relentlessly

WHAT COMES NEXT 

“Love relentlessly.” -Diana Butler Bass

Love relentlessly, she said,
and I want to slip these two words
into every cell in my body, not the sound
of the words, but the truth of them,
the vital, essential need for them,
until relentless love becomes
a cytoplasmic imperative,
the basic building block for every action.
Because anger makes a body clench.
Because fear invokes cowering, shrinking, shock.
I know the impulse to run, to turn fist, to hurt back.
I know, too, the warmth of cell-deep love—
how it spreads through the body like ocean wave,
how it doesn’t erase anger and fear,
rather seeds itself somehow inside it,
so even as I contract love bids me to open
wide as a leaf that unfurls in spring
until fear is not all I feel.
Love relentlessly.
Even saying the words aloud invites
both softness and ferocity into the chest,
makes the heart throb with simultaneous
urgency and willingness. A radical pulsing
of love, pounding love, thumping love,
a rebellion of generous love,
tenacious love, a love so foundational
every step of what’s next begins
and continues as an uprising,
upwelling, ongoing, infusion
of love, tide of love, honest love.

~Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Agenda today:

1. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

2. Review Essential Intentions

3. Love meditation

Sabbath for Proaction

When I first read about the concept of proaction in Stephen Covey's book, I was amazed to learn that I have the freedom and responsibility to choose how to respond rather than going through my life reacting to things as they arise; that I can control my moods and my impulses, rather than letting situations and people’s words sway me.

I've gotten much better now at being independent and disciplined - at letting praise and criticism roll off me; at feeling good because of my inner light rather than as a response to what others say; at having equanimity in the hard times. And I've also gotten better at looking my moods of avoidance in the eye and having the strength of my convictions.

Today I have a day to myself, and I'll take time to be proactive and disciplined with some things I've been avoiding, and also settle into meditation on the various people and situations in my life and how I can better respond to them.

Agenda today:

1. Read "Everyday Simplicity"
2. Resilience tasks
3. Proaction plans
4. Love Meditation

Say Yes

I hope to have the integrity to say yes, to act with truth, with love, with honor. Truth is a continual revelation, a constantly unfolding series of insights about how my mind works, how the world works, and how I might best act with more love, honesty, generosity, justice, and peace. Truth expands my understanding of life to give me clarity.

But there I am often stuck- I struggle sometimes against apathy, and sometimes against mind-numbing fear. Here is my growing edge; every day presents an opportunity to get on track. I hope to have the courage of my convictions- to follow the life path I know I need to follow. My anxiety and resistance is wasted energy: I KNOW my path, and I need only relax into the love of the Universe to act on my knowing, to take the next step.

“But however Truth comes, it bears with it just enough of its own sense of rightness to overcome the fear of risk taking. While genuine risk plays a crucial role in all of the Habits of Love, it is perhaps most keen in the Habit of Truth. At too many forks in the road, anxiety stops us from following Truth's suggested direction. What will happen if I say yes to Truth as I recognize it? That question can arrest us in our tracks.” ~Ed Bacon

 

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries
2. Read "The Creativity Book"
3. Simple project list

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. Mindful of love

2. Mindfulness practices
3. Make Valentines

Full Snow Moon and Lantern Festival

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 real snow this month, and we are not out of food, but it is a lean time: Lean on light, barren garden beds, and low on energy.

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. 

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 explore what it's like to be the receptive earth, accepting the seed and willing to nurture it. 

Agenda for today:

1. Vision walk

2. Celebrate receptivity

3. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

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

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

Living Room Questions

The living room is the sanctuary of our home, where we gather to be safe and together. It's the entry to our home, the welcoming arena, and where we celebrate life together. This is a shared family space: We fill and arrange the room together; it’s our creation- we speak our souls into the emptiness, and suddenly, there is life. 

Agenda today:

1. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

2. Clean and clear the living room

3. Simple steps for health

Honor my Friendships

I want to honor my friendships, my bond with those essential people who love and support me, teach me and learn from me, and who help me discover my true self. I want my friendships to deepen and grow stronger. I can take better care of all my friendships with a little intentional nurturing.

Agenda:

1. Read "Everyday Simplicity"
2. Resilience tasks
3. Friendship tasks

Sabbath for Joyful Inspiration

Joy is the jewel hidden in my clothing, always with me but often forgotten. Feelings of joy grow out of attention to the love in my life; it’s the elevated state of simple delight, and anything can trigger it. I only need to remind myself to slow down, and savor the experiences of being alive.

The Dalai Lama says, "The purpose of life is to be happy". I long for a life with no anxiety, no loneliness, grief, disappointment, or sadness, but only an ongoing feeling of joy! But true happiness comes when I enter into the "full catastrophe" of my life with an open mind and heart, using all of the day-to-day insults as a way to awareness. It’s the ability to be relaxed enough to receive the pleasant without clinging to it and the unpleasant without pushing it away. If I can let events unfold - whether they are glorious or wretched- the joy is there, in the vividness of life.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"

2. Find inspiration

3. Simple project list

4. Joy practice

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. Read "The Serviceberry"

2. Garden visualization

3. February tasks

4. Prepare to plant

5. Make potting soil

6. Make Persian Spiced Apples

First Quarter Moon of February

Tonight is the First Quarter Moon; we are one-quarter of the way through the moon cycle. The moon is waxing - getting larger - until it's full again. Now is the time to remain flexible, use my obstacles as fuel for growth, and show full effort for priorities.

I use this February quarter moon's energy to lean in to love.

Agenda for today:

1. Read "It's a Meaningful Life"

2. Journal Queries

3. Full effort for Love

4. Make a full effort plan

Why Love?

Every year or two, I practice a 30-day love cycle of reading, thought, and small actions that help me to cultivate and improve the habits that allow me to keep love central in my life, and in my everyday interactions. 

Love is the key to happiness and success in all areas. Life is lived in relationship- in community- and no matter how brilliant and effective I am, I will struggle if I have poor relationships with the people in my life. Love is also a frame for my bond with the earth, with Spirit, and with myself.

Love is a practice, not a belief or feeling. It’s a set of habits learned over a lifetime: Listening, giving, speaking and acting in a loving way. It’s a way of being, with my attention on compassion, patience, generosity, kindness, and understanding. 

“By celebrating—and sharing—the love that already lives inside us, we can free ourselves from the fear, anger and sadness that cause so much suffering. I have seen firsthand that when we open our hearts to love’s abundance we are able to transform our lives and make the world a more just and peaceful place… When put into practice in our daily lives, these simple habits help us make the choice, day after day, to reject fear’s hold and embrace, instead, the immense power and grace within us.” --Ed Bacon

Agenda today:

1. Love plans

2. Be at ease

3. Talk journal on patience

4. Teachable Two's plan

Kitchen Questions

Our kitchen is the central courtyard of our home, where we light the hearth fire. It used to be a gathering spot, but we don't eat there anymore; we flow through from the front to the back of the house, in and out all day long, gathering only long enough to make a cake together, or load our plates.

We had many reasons for not eating at the table, and that led to the decision to install a mattress-fort under the table, making it impossible to pull chairs up to it anymore.

My biggest question today is: Is that how we want our kitchen to be used or is it time to reintroduce meals at the table?

Agenda today:

1. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

2. Clean and clear the kitchen

3. Simple steps for health

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.

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 "Everyday Simplicity"

2. Make a Brigid's Cross

2. Make Irish seed cake

3. Seed blessing ceremony

4. Have a fire

February Phenology Report

Phenology is the study of cyclic and seasonal changes in nature. It's nature's calendar - when flowers bloom, leaves break bud, birds begin migrating, leaves change color and begin to fall, and so on. Farmers and gardeners use phenology to develop a planting schedule. Researchers observe changes in phenology as an indicator of the vulnerability of species and communities to changes in climate.

I've decided to study the phenology in my garden to broaden my awareness, deepen my connection to the wildlife around me, and to better understand the calendar of my environment and how it is changing. I'll focus on a few native plants and personal favorites in my yard, the birds at my feeder, and some specific patches of leaf mulch (for insects).

Agenda Today:

1. Read "The Serviceberry"

2. Penology Journal

3. Mason bees