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

1. Retreat Day:

If at all possible, I schedule a day of retreat on the new moon, or near to it: I do less talking, less business, and more personal thought and action. To honor the birthday of the Great Yin, I will spend today in yin mode, not doing, but rather being: Relax in my home, read a book, play with watercolor, plant seeds, go for a walk, take a bath, take a nap, linger over dinner, and go to bed early.

2. Read "The Creativity Book":

A few years ago I started but didn't finish this book by Eric Maisel (one of my favorite writers). The subtitle is "A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance." Who doesn't want that?

I'm finishing Part 6: Use Yourself. This section is all about accepting myself as the expert on my own creative projects, and trusting that my instincts and knowledge will guide me.

Week 24 is Be Yourself Entirely. He talks about how to use creativity for the work of becoming a whole, integrated person again. "You can use the resources you currently have to recover the parts of you that may have gotten lost."

The first step is to Identify the Authentic Me: 

What parts of my authentic self have become submerged? 

What are the consequences of that loss? How am I different than the whole me I could be?  

How would an integrated me spend my days, and what creative work would I do?  

From my journal: When I think back to my youth, I remember how much time I spent daydreaming alone under a bush or in a tree. (How I miss Grandmother Apple Tree). Really, though, I don't think I was ever brave, or ambitious, or outrageous. I am pretty much the authentic me, with some of the cluelessness drained away. I am perhaps a little more jaded, a little more resigned. 

My work could be more hopeful and light; my days more playful. 

3. Pick a theme:

At the new moon I choose a theme, and begin to give attention to it. My theme this month is joy and creativity. Joy includes contentment, serenity, harmony, and living with a wide-open, unbiased attitude of appreciation for life; creativity is the ability to have original ideas, to make something out of the ordinary, and to find new solutions to problems.

Curiosity, humor, and attention are supports for a joyful mind. A childlike quality of joy supports my spontaneous, innovative, creative spirit. When I am in a joyful mood, I feel relaxed, expansive, and spontaneous, and I can turn a problem into a creative challenge. Also, my joyous mood is infectious and brings success with my relationships.

Joy and creativity goals might be to experience more harmony, happiness, and lightness in my life; to take time to relax and play; to exercise my intuition and my creativity muscles; to become more flexible, expansive, and hopeful.

My joy practices this month:

• Weekly creativity adventures (at the library, art galleries, thrift shops, etc.)
• Art and play with Grandsons.
• Contentment in the garden, with daily planting and care, and time each day to be quiet and aware with nature.
• House embellishments - tree mural, bathroom butterflies, garden signs...

4. Set intentions:

Last week I brainstormed some wild and crazy ideas for the next 30 days, and today it's time to narrow it down a little, to the priority items that I could possibly focus on this next month. This isn't a list of the practical things I need to do this month; rather it's my top actions, studies, and growth goals that fit with the "taste" of this month of my life.

After I list my top 10-20 goals for the next 30 days, I'm ready to set some intentions for action. This is a time-consuming but important process. I'm going to choose a few to write today - those I might act on today - then work on a few more each day this week.

I intend to embrace joy and creativity, and live with harmony and lightness of spirit, because a joyful and playful attitude supports my creative spirit and nourishes my relationships. Specifically I plan to go on creative adventure outings, and play with watercolor abstracts.

I intend to find contentment in the garden, with daily planting and care, and take time each day to be quiet and aware, in unity with nature, because my spirit needs attention and care in order to grow, and I especially want to grow my connection to the Earth and the Sky, as a little part of nature myself.

 

5. New moon altar and meditation:

It's time to clear my altar, and discern what to put on it for the next 30 days. (For my thoughts on altars see About Altars). I generally keep it simple and choose only things that speak to me and feed me, and reveal what I believe in. I ask, what quality of Spirit do I want to invoke?

I've added:

• an orange candle - for joy and creativity
• a robin - promise of new beginnings, happiness, and renewal
• a basket of small eggs - for life and potential

Today I will light a small white candle on my altar. I'll center and give attention to each of my intentions, and picture each one accomplished. Then I'll let go of expectations, and feel myself fill with thankfulness for all I have now in my life.

6. Simple projects list:

One of my intentions for Lent is toggle fun effort for my art, because art gives my life meaning, which in turn builds my resilience. I've got plenty of fun ideas: besides watercolor abstracts, I've been thinking of weathergrams, murals, cloth story pictures, Earth Care banners, craftivism and give-away art. Also, writing a Nature-Culture book. And of course, art with my grandsons, and making a fine new mud kitchen sand pit!

I need to choose just 3 projects; my simple projects list this week is:

1. Paint and play with watercolor abstracts. 
2. Start a tree mural in the laundry room.
3. Start a cloth picture a bird.

7. Late March planting:

It's four weeks before our last average frost: Time to plant beets and spinach outdoors!

 

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is in the Amaranthaceae family, related to the beet and Swiss chard. This plant is thought to have originated from central and southwest Asia and first cultivated over 2,000 years ago in Persia (Iran). 

Spinach is a cool weather annual, grown as both a spring and an autumn crop. When planting, temperatures should be above 50°F, but below 60°F for optimal production; usually about 4 weeks prior to the last frost of the spring and 6 weeks before the first frost of autumn. Spinach prefers well-drained, nitrogen rich soil to encourage the growth of tender leaves. Seeds can be sown directly into the soil, about 1-inch apart in an area of full sun (although spinach is tolerant of partial shade) and thinned later to 3-inches apart. Water frequently as growth begins and then on a regular basis as the plants develop. Beans and peas are terrific companion plants for spinach. Not only do legumes affix nitrogen into the soil, but these taller companions help shade the spinach and keep it from bolting. Other spinach companion crops include cabbage, cauliflower, chard, onion, and strawberries.

Still harvesting my fall beets.

And I'm also planting beets outside. Beets (Beta vulgaris) are descended from the sea beet, a wild seashore plant growing around the Mediterranean and along the coasts of Europe and North Africa. The native sea beet was primarily eaten for its leaves rather than its root, which was like a skinny carrot.

Beets are a year round crop for me: I make two plantings each year, now and again in the fall, for an all season harvest. They prefer to be planted in moist soil that has reached 50°F. Beets grow well with onions and garlic, lettuce, radishes, strong-scented herbs, and the cabbage family. Don't plant them near to pole beans, field mustard, or chard. Beet leaves are composed of 25% magnesiums, so be sure to compost any you don't eat.