Eid al-Fitr

My finished mehndi design.

Tonight is the Islamic Festival of the Breaking of the Fast, which ends Ramadan. In Arabic, eid means festivity and fitr means to break a fast.

Muslims celebrate for three days; they decorate their homes with lights, dress in their finest clothes, and visit with friends and family. It’s a day of peace, unity, and forgiveness. A common greeting is “Eid Mubarak” (Blessed Eid).

Agenda this week:
1. Prayers

2. Zakaat zl-fitr (Charity of fast breaking)

3. Read "The 5 Resets"

4. Mehndi Designs

5. Make Ma'amoul (Stuffed Date Cookies)

Fourth Sunday of Lent and Chaitra Navratri

Today is the start of Navratri, a Hindu holiday during which we honor and thank Shakti, the Divine Mother, in all her forms. Shakti is the universal principle of energy and creativity, Mother Earth, and the feminine power in each of us.

The word nava means nine and ratri means nights; the festival lasts for nine nights and ten days. Navratri is celebrated twice each year, in the spring and fall, because these are times when nature and people undergo great changes. Spring (Chaitra) Navratri begins the day after the new moon in late March or early April, and is celebrated as a request to Shakti for a good growing season.

The nine nights of Navratri are broken up into sets of three, and during each a different aspect of Shakti is meditated upon - the Goddesses Durga, then Lakshmi, and then Saraswati. Each of the three goddesses marks a stage of the spiritual journey we all go through: Durga’s strength and energy creates an opening, Lakshmi’s success and fortune nurtures growth, and Saraswati’s wisdom and knowledge leads to enlightenment, happiness, and peace.

Agenda:

2021 Rangoli (with grandson help)

1. Morning meditation and mantra

2. Read "Everyday Simplicity"

3. Make a self-cultivation plan

4. Lent review and Simple food plan

5. Make a rangoli design

6. Plant grain seeds
7. Set up an altar for Mother Nature
8. Make channa sundal (spicy chickpeas)

New Sleep Moon

Today is my New Moon retreat day - I'll do less talking, less business, and more personal thought and action. The Chinese call the third new moon the Sleepy Moon, because the drowsiness of spring is in the air. 

On the first three days of this moon, the Chinese in Beijing celebrate the birthday of Hsi Wang Mu with a temple festival. Hsi Wang Mu is the Grandmother Goddess of the Western Heaven, also called the Great Yin. She controls the cosmic forces of time and space, determines life and death, and controls disease and healing. She watches over the tree of the peaches of immortality.

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 and set intentions for the next phase of my year.

Agenda today:

1. Retreat Day

2. Read "The Creativity Book"

3. Choose a month theme

4. Set intentions

5. New moon altar and meditation

6. Simple projects list

7. Late March planting

A Little Spring Break Retreat

Spring break is here and we have a couple of days off from grandchildcare, as the family is going camping. Today I will revel in a spring day to putter around the house with nothing scheduled (while I also miss the kids!)

Today I am finding ways to celebrate spring - making art, spending time in the garden, buying new (for me) spring clothes and walking shoes, experimenting with homemade yogurt, and making an upgraded sand pit for the kids.  

Agenda:

1. Read "The 5 Resets"
2. Action plan

Third Sunday of Lent

At Lent I allow myself to be slow, simple, and thoughtful. I spend time each day in focused study and prayer, and then take action to bring my vision to fruition.

My theme this year for Lent is Active Hope and Resilience: 

Active Hope 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.

Resilience is a set of practical skills that allow me to be strong, flexible, creative, hopeful, and positive, and to successfully adapt to stressors, and bounce back from difficult experiences.

Agenda:

1. Read Everyday Simplicity
2. Simple food plan

3. Make cheese spread
4. Spring cleaning

March Third Quarter Moon

Today is the third Quarter moon. This waning third quarter 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.

Agenda Today:

1. Renewal plan

2. Evaluation House

3. Monthly journal brainstorm

4. Snail control

5. Planting onions and leeks

Spring Equinox and Nowruz

Spring equinox occurred this morning at 2:01 a.m. PDT. The word equinox comes from the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night). This is a moment of balance - the sun rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west, and we experience twelve hours each of light and dark. From this moment on, we gain more light each day, until the summer solstice.

And Nowruz is the Persian New Year, which begins each year at the time of the spring equinox in Iran, and is celebrated for two weeks. The word Nowruz means New Day in Persian. It’s an ancient Persian belief that creation of the world took place on the first day of spring.

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries

 2. Spring cleaning and decorating

3. Dye a few eggs

5. Make Koloocheh Cookies

6. Set up a haft sin

7. Nowruz Ceremony

Take Power

The news is pretty bleak. Today, on the last official day of winter, I'm looking for ways to protect my family and fight the powers that be. 

Agenda:

1. Read "Hope in the Dark"

2. Love meditation

Chaharshanbe Suri Eve

Chaharshanbe Suri, the Festival of Fire, is part of the ten day Zoroastrian festival, Farvardegan, which concludes with Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on March 21. On this last Tuesday evening of the year, Iranians jump over bonfires.

Agenda:

1. Love meditation

2. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

3. Make Ajeel

4. Build a fire and JUMP!

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is an Irish holiday that falls on March 17 each year. In Ireland it's celebrated with parades, community feasts, singing, dancing, and church services, all in honor of St. Patrick, an English man who lived in about 400 A.D. 

Pat’s whole name was Magnus Sucatus Patricus. When he was 16, Irish raiders carried him off from England to Ireland to work as a slave. He escaped six years later, traveled and studied for many years, and became a Christian missionary. He returned to Ireland, and grew famous for all the miracles he performed and for converting many Irish people to Christianity.

Agenda Today:

1. Read "Reset"

2. Resilience skill

3. Prayer of St. Patrick

4. Plant peas and my straw doll

5. Enjoy hot Irish coffee

Second Sunday of Lent

My theme this year for Lent is Active Hope and Resilience: 

Active Hope 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.

Resilience is a set of practical skills that allow me to be strong, flexible, creative, hopeful, and positive, and to successfully adapt to stressors, and bounce back from difficult experiences.

 

At Lent I allow myself to be slow, simple, and thoughtful. I spend time each day in focused study and prayer, and then take action to bring my vision to fruition.

Agenda:

1. Read "Everyday Simplicity"

2. Practice a love meditation

3. Work on my banner

4. Simple food plan

5. Make crackers

Sabbath for the Cusp of Spring

Face drawing at age 2!

Today is the start of my sabbath - for a couple of days at the end of my week I step out of the fray, and regroup. We are on the cusp of spring, and I want to take time to prepare myself - body, mind, and spirit.

My perfect sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I don't rush, complain, or worry. Everything I do has a flavor of peace. I schedule some work, but it's work I find fulfilling, or uplifting. Simple is a great word to describe my ideal activities for the sabbath: Simple tasks, simple foods, and an undemanding schedule.

1.  Read "The Serviceberry"

2. Brainstorm for Spring

3. Practice a Reverent Way of Being

4. Plant greens

Full Egg moon

The full moon of March is the atcha-uyu or "Women Dig Camus" moon by the Kalapuya of my area, and the Egg Moon by others, because this is the month when birds begin to lay eggs again. The egg is a powerful symbol of hope, new beginnings, and completeness: My vague ideas take a solid shape, enclosed in a perfect shell, and I have created a whole new beautiful thing! The March Full Moon is a good time to ponder ​t​he wholeness of life.

We are now at the peak of the high-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the low-energy yin time of the waning moon.

Agenda Today:

1. Take a vision walk

2. Celebrate strength

Farvardegan

Today is the start of Farvardegan, which means “days of remembering the Fravashis" (guardian angels). It's a ten day Zoroastrian festival that includes the five days of Hamaspathmaidyem, which begin on March 16, and concludes with Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on March 21.

Hamaspathmaidyem is the sixth and last gahambar. This gahamber is the most significant to Zoroastrians, because it's devoted to remembering the fravashis or guardian angels. According to Zoroastrian religion, each of the 6 creations was created during one of the gahambars. Mankind was created on this last one.

Agenda this week:

1. Read "Hope in the Dark"

2. Spring cleaning

3. Welcome the angels
4. Offer thanks
5. Recite prayers

Attention to Attention

One of my intentions this year for Lent is to work at emotional and mental resilience skills (such as mindfulness, awareness, purpose, and community-building), because being able to adapt to stressors and bounce back from difficult experiences will allow me to be a wise, flexible, creative, hopeful, and positive leader for my family, community, and for the earth.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are a perfect classroom for this: We have both our grandsons on these days - for nine hours! It's challenging but supremely rewarding.

Agenda for today:

1. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

2. Make creamy ricotta dip

Building Resilience

Resilience is a set of practical skills that allow me to be strong, flexible, creative, hopeful, and positive, and to successfully adapt to stressors, and bounce back from difficult experiences.

I intend to continue to practice and build simple health and physical resilience habits (drinking water, walking, better food choices, and care of my body), because these habits will help me to age gracefully, reduce the risk of diseases, be strong through the crises which will come, improve my mood, enjoy life, and care for my family for years to come.

 

I also intend to work at emotional and mental resilience skills (such as mindfulness, awareness, purpose, and community-building), because being able to adapt to stressors and bounce back from difficult experiences will allow me to be a wise, flexible, creative, hopeful, and positive leader for my family, community, and for the earth.

Agenda:

1. Read "The 5 Resets":

For Lent, I'm reading "The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience" (2024), by Aditi Nerurkar. My goal is to get wiser, stronger, and more adaptable.

Last week I started the first reset - to Get Clear on What Matters Most. I set some realistic goals, and made a realistic plan: I want to eat less processed foods; I want to be more emotionally grounded, aware, and regulated; and I want to make lots of art, because it's what gives my life meaning.

She goes on to talk about two kinds of happiness: The first she calls hedonic, which are activities like playing phone games, buying a latte, binge-watching romances, and drinking ciders. These are great temporary gifts of pleasure, and a respite from routine. Sometimes they are just what we need.

But they don't last long, and they can leave you with a craving for more. And too much hedonic activity can be a burden if you are spending too much on them. We can't rely on them to cure stress or make us truly happy. For that we need eudaimonic experiences, centered on meaning and purpose: Art-making, gardening, being with my family - things that put me in the flow, and challenge my brain and my body.

One way to discover eudaimonics is to think of things I enjoyed as a kid: Drawing paper dolls, making gifts for people, reading Tolkien by a fire, pruning roses, walking on the beach (even teaching kids is something I enjoyed when I was still just a kid). She calls it "finding my buried treasure".

2. Choose joy-filled activities:

Last week I decided on my endgame for the next months - By Easter I will have: 

adopted many healthy choices for snacks and meals without processed food, and be less addicted to easy carbs;

integrated most if not all of the Emotional Balance Workbook exercises into my everyday life, and feel emotionally grounded, aware, and regulated;

and completed at least three art projects of some kind. 

This week I will add daily joyful activities, such as planting starts, painting, writing lessons, and doing art with my grandsons.

• Monday: Design banner, draw lettering + dig out a sand pit!
• Tuesday: Write a Transform Your World lesson + art with Artie.
• Wednesday: Library visit - find book.
• Thursday: Paint banner letters
• Friday: Sew banner together
• Saturday: Plant bok choy, kale, beets

First Sunday of Lent

My theme this year for Lent is Active Hope and Resilience: 

Active Hope 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.

Resilience is a set of practical skills that allow me to be strong, flexible, creative, hopeful, and positive, and to successfully adapt to stressors, and bounce back from difficult experiences.

 

At Lent I allow myself to be slow, simple, and thoughtful. I spend time each day in focused study and prayer, and then take action to bring my vision to fruition.

Agenda:

1. Read "Everyday Simplicity"

2. Practice visualization

3. Banner plan

4. Simple food plan

5. Phenology record

March Creativity

The month of March is filled with a riot of color and activity. It’s a fresh, youthful, quick-flowing month - the start of something new. In March I do the work; I tend and nurture my family, my garden, and my projects. March is a month for being a physical creature; for feeling all sensations, and being really present in my body - playful and young-in-spirit.

In the winter I dreamed dreams and made plans, but as spring approaches, it's time to get into action. Today I have a wide-open day to fill with the work of creating my vision here on the earth. 

Agenda:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"

2. Simple projects list

3. Build energy for creativity

Early March Garden

Checking an old nest in the camellia

March is when the gardening season increases in intensity. I will prepare my garden beds, and plant seeds indoors and out. Right now, it's still too cold to plant outside, but I have lots of preparation work to do!

Agenda:

1. Read "The Serviceberry"
2. March tasks
3. Plant indoors

4. Phenology journal

First Quarter Moon of Early March

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 March quarter moon's energy to have discipline with my mind, moods, and cravings.

Agenda for today:

1. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

2. Journal Queries

3. Make a full effort plan

4. Make chewy granola bars

Ash Wednesday

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."

Quakers don't traditionally celebrate Lent because we live every day being born again, centered in God. Still - I will always jump at a chance for a period of reflection.

Agenda:

1. Read "Hope in the Dark"

2. Simple food plan

3. Make pretzels

4. Hang up the Lent Lady

5. Plant a sabzeh

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 Western 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. Read "The 5 Resets"

2. Endgame for resilience

3. Plans for Lent

4. Make carnival corn soup

5. Make a screen mask

Hina Matsuri and Clean Monday

Hina Matsuri is a Japanese festival that falls every year on March 3. It began in ancient times as a Shinto effigy ceremony to prepare farmers for the planting of spring crops: They would rub their negative energy off onto a doll, then float it down the river.

Today girl's set up displays of dolls, have a tea party, and - yes - some people still send dolls down the river.

Today is also Clean Monday, the first Monday of Lent, 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!

Agenda today:

1. Make hina dolls and paper boats

2. The hina-okuri ceremony

3. Prepare to plant

4. Spring cleaning

5. Make hishi mochi and have a tea party

Forgiveness Sunday

Forgiveness Sunday is an Eastern Orthodox holiday that marks the start of Lent. The Western and Eastern churches usually celebrate Lent and Easter on different dates - the Western dates are calculated with the Gregorian calendar, and the Eastern dates use the Julian Calendar - but this year they are very close together. Western Lent begins this Wednesday, March 4, and so I'm celebrating Forgiveness Sunday now, on its proper date, to help become prepared for a time of Lenten reflection.

Agenda Today:
1. Ask forgiveness and offer forgiveness
2. Read "Everyday Simplicity"
3. Make tyropita (cheese pie)
4. Light a candle

Ramadan

Sunset photo by Brayden

Tonight is the start of Ramadan, an Islamic holy day that marks the discovery of the Qur’an by the Prophet Muhammad.

The Islamic calendar is totally lunar, so Ramadan is a few weeks earlier each year, at the sighting of the thin crescent moon, hopefully at sundown tonight.

Ramadan is a month of blessing. By night, Muslims read the Qur'an, and celebrate the compassion of God with special prayers. 

By day, they give to charities, and observe the discipline of fasting: They eat an early morning meal before the sun rises, then eat and drink nothing until after sundown. The Ramadan fast includes abstinence from falsehood and anger, in words and in deeds.

Even though I don't partake in a fast, I observe Ramadan in this same spirit, renewing my relationship with God, and exercising self-discipline and generosity. I hope to build my empathy for Muslims as they observe their month-long fast.

Agenda:
1. Celestial awareness

2. Review Essential Intentions
3. Celebrate Iftar