Find the Sweet Spot

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and prepare for Grandson fun.

Because I'm working on a Slow Passion Project, to involve myself wholeheartedly with my priorities and stretch beyond the way I’ve always done things, I also want to figure out how to find the sweet spot, where I'm engaged and challenged, but not stressed out.

Agenda:
1. Read "The Sweet Spot"
2. Honor my breaks
3. Big outdoor building projects
4. Make a magical smudging bundle

5. Harvest raspberries and mulch

Maidyoshahem

The Zoroastrian community honors the six seasons of the year by celebrating six Gahambars; the word gahambar means "proper season". Each of these six festivals is celebrated for five days, and each honors one of the six material creations: The heaven, water, earth, flora, fauna and man.

Maidyoshahem (may-eed-YO-sha-hem) is the second Gahambar, the Midsummer Rain feast, and it takes place each year from June 29 to July 3. This Gahambar celebrates the creation of water on our earth, and the last day is called Tirgan (pronounced Teer-gone), in honor of Tir, the angel of rain. Iranians celebrate Tirgan with dancing, singing, and by swimming and splashing water on each other.

Agenda this week:
1. Recite a Prayer
2. Read "Everyday Simplicity"

3. Teamwork plans

4. Make a Persian Salad
5. Phenology journal

Sabbath for Slow Passion

Today I'm beginning my Slow Passion Project, an extension of my Flow Project. I've been working to SLOW DOWN and GO WITH the FLOW, and this month I'm adding INVOLVE MY WHOLE SELF.

Agenda:

1. Read "Brainstorm"

2. Transform my world intentions

3. Simple project list

4. Do the smallest thing

Friday

It's Friday, with a bit of a break in people time. I have a couple social commitments today, but they are one-on-one and mellow, amidst a week filled with clerking, family gatherings, and a memorial. Today I get to take time in the garden and with my writing and artwork, to sooth my nerves.

Agenda:

1. Read "First Things First"

2. Vision and goals

New Lotus Moon

The sixth new moon is know as the Lotus Moon by the Chinese. The lotus is the "flower of open-heartedness", an emblem of purity, fruitfulness (because of its many seeds) and creative power. And since lotus leaves protect the goldfish under them (a symbol of prosperity), the lotus also symbolizes abundance year after year.

Detail from "Connect", acrylic

A lotus flower grows out of the mud, and blossoms above the muddy water surface. Buddhists teach that, like a lotus, we can rise above the suffering and conflicts of life. The Lotus Moon, then, is the natural time to dig into the mud of my life, and seek out the best ways to grow above the fray.

Agenda:

1. Read "Creativity Takes Courage"

2. Choose a month theme

3. Set intentions

Reset

Monday is my day to reset for the week. I will get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and prepare for Grandson fun.  

Agenda:
1. Read "5 Resets"
2. Live a Lifetime in a Day plan
3. Care for the kitchen
4. Kid Camp Preparations

Retreat Day

Colomia bud

The new moon comes mid-week, and, historically, this is when women took time to be alone; it's a time to retreat, set intentions, and initiate something new.

If at all possible, I schedule a day of retreat near to the new moon, and so today I will take time to write, and to be quiet in my garden.

Agenda
1. Read "Everyday Simplicity"
2. Teamwork plans

3. Design a card

Sabbath for Letting Go

Summer is a good time to practice letting go - of structure, judgements, caution, and perfection. This season, more than any other, requires space for spontaneity and time for just being. My theme this month is balance - the stability of a grounded body and a clear mind, along with equanimity of heart. When I practice balance I am better able to let go of the bank, and dive into the flow of life.

Today I have set aside some time to just be with my art project ideas and let them expand.

Agenda:

1. Read the Creativity Book

2. Brainstorm for creativity and courage

3. Set an intention for summer creativity

4. Simple project list

5. Do the smallest thing

Summer Solstice

The season is turning. Today the sun exerts its maximum energy on our part of the earth; the powers of outward expression are at their greatest, and the powers of inner contemplation are at their lowest.

And of course, just as we reach the point of maximum yang energy, yin energy is reborn and begins to gain strength: The next days will each be a little shorter again, until the winter solstice in December.

Agenda:

1. Make a New Solar Disk

2. Harvest herbs

3. Make Kanelbuller (Swedish Cinnamon buns)

4. Make flower crowns

5. Build a Solstice Fire

Third Quarter Moon of June

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. This isn’t a moment for starting new projects but for finishing up old ones, making peace with the past, and preparing for a fresh start at the next new moon. 

Agenda Today:

1. 

Read 

"5 Resets"

2. 

Renewal plan

3. Meditation and Evaluation Journal

4. Ritual for Release and Realignment 

5. Monthly journal brainstorm

Prepare for the Solstice

The Solstice is less than a week away, and my habit is to have a week of summer fun to welcome the start of this amazing season.

Summer is the wonderful time when we get to slow down, sleep in, play with friends, go swimming, bask in the sun, eat ice cream, stay up after dark... let’s face it; all the best stuff happens in the summer! No matter how old you are, summer is a time to slow your pace and savor the fun and freedom. The shift from spring to summer is worth noticing!

Agenda: 

1. Love meditation

2. Practice a Reverent Way of Being

3. Read "A Book That Takes It's Time"

4. Plan a fun build-up to summer

5. Make Sima

6. Care for the bedrooms

Sabbath for Being Balm

My sabbath is a busy one, with lots of being in community. I intend to carry a quiet presence with me all day, that will be a balm for the anxious souls around me.  

Agenda:

1. Read "Everyday Simplicity":
2. Love meditation
3. Gratitude list
4. Simple projects list

Part 3: Passion

I'm continuing my big project to transform my life towards hope, resilience, and flow, because these will allow me to be a wise, flexible, creative, and positive leader for my family, community, and for the earth. 

The last part of the project (that I haven't touched on yet) is to be passionate and brave - let go of caution and involve myself wholeheartedly with what I love. Stretch beyond the way I’ve always done things.

Agenda:

1. Love Meditation

2. Read "First Things First"

3. Creative visioning

4. Make an inspirational postcard

Full Strawberry Moon

Photo by Alan Gillespie

Tonight is the full moon called anishnalya, the "camas ripe" moon by the Kalapuya of our area, and the Strawberry Moon by others.

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. 

Agenda:

1. Take a vision walk

2. Celebrate balance

Gratitude and Mindfulness

Will gratitude work for me? Today I'm trying to parse the resistance I have to gratitude: It feels too easy, too superficial. How can it be the fix all it's said to be? Also, it's boring - I am grateful for my house and my grandchildren, yada yada yada. Also, it feels like a  form of denial, of minimizing my true experiences and feelings, and all the terrible shit going on around me.

Sile Walsh says, "Positivity can be as destructive to authenticity as can depression, they are both extremes that pull us from our own balance, our own grey areas, our process of being in life fully. They both have a way of coloring life in a certain light, a light we can tolerate. ... Be grateful for what you do have, seek comfort in knowing that life isn’t always the way we want — for any of us. ... appreciate the crap for what it is — crap. “Right now is crap. Can we be grateful for the reality established between us?

The dark side of gratitude is that it sounds great and can be easily misused. Mind yourself, mind your heart, mind your emotions, they hold the key to the balance we all seek.”

Agenda Today:

1. Gratitude list

2. 

Read 

"Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

3. Mindful Thinking journal

Recovery

I'm taking a recovery day off! I've been sick with a cold, and today I woke up with no voice, a message from my body to chill out a bit.

Agenda:

1. Read "5 Resets"

2. My Gratitude List

3. Care for the Studio

Flow Project Review

In May I started a big project to transform my life towards hope, resilience, and flow, because these will allow me to be a wise, flexible, creative, and positive leader for my family, community, and for the earth. This project has three parts: 

• I intend to start with personal leadership, asking how can I improve the underlying system of my life?

• I intend to live in the flow, with immediacy – slow down and just BE, in this moment- aware and awake, listening to my intuition and messages from the Universe.

• I intend to be passionate and brave - let go of caution and involve myself wholeheartedly with what I love. Stretch beyond the way I’ve always done things.

I've done some great research and gone off on several tangents. Today I want to draw it all together and plan some next steps.

Agenda:

1. Read "Everyday Simplicity"

2. Systems review

3. Creative mindfulness ideas

The June Garden

Serviceberry with berries!

The June garden is pure abundance. It's too late to start most summer veggies now in my valley, and too early to start fall crops, so my focus is on garden care - watering, weeding, mulching - and on HARVEST.

Agenda:
1. June harvest
2. June planting

3. June tasks

4. Phenology journal

First Quarter Moon of Early June

Tonight is 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 early June quarter moon's energy to build my physical energy and discipline to consistently take creative action (and build my creative muscle through doing the reps). 

Agenda Today:

1. Read "A Book That Takes It's Time"

2. Journal queries
3. Make a full effort plan

June Transitions

June is a transition month - the end of spring and the beginning of summer. June’s element is fire, which purifies and gives life. It’s a highly yang time of movement and power, the season of completion, abundance and fulfillment. I have a hope that in summer I will reach the full flowering of my self and my dreams.

June has a different pace, less scheduled though more active. It’s a time for fine-tuning, and for decisive action. June is when I like to energetically climb to the top of a hill, survey the landscape and climb down again, to put myself in context, evaluate my progress, see what I’ve accomplished since January, and make careful adjustments in my goals and priorities. 

My aim this month is to stand still and calm in the center while I am playing, cleaning, writing, socializing, teaching, digging in the garden, swimming, traveling, and painting. 

"Only when there is stillness in movement can the spiritual rhythm appear which pervades heaven and earth." -- Taoist text

Agenda:

1. Journal query

2. Read "5 Resets"
3. Care for the Living room

4. Ray of Sun Meditation

Transforming Power

Transforming Power is a term coined by the Alternatives to Violence Project, which was started by Quakers and inmates at the Greenhaven Prison in New York in the 1970's, at a time of great unrest and violence. Together the inmates and the Quakers developed non-violence workshops inside prisons, which continue to this day, with town and inmate students, and town and inmate leaders.

In a nutshell, Transforming Power is a river of energy at your core, made up of your essential wisdom, strength, and goodness, which you can touch in with in order to experience a shift. It might be a shift from anger or resentment to peace; it might be a shift from fear and powerlessness to strength; it might be a shift from sadness or worry to joy.

The shift you experience might be slow and steady or like a lightning bolt, but it will contain an element of love: You become part of the whole, no longer isolated. You will experience a self-acceptance and a sense of peace that allows you to connect with others without hesitation. It's this connection that transforms you: Your view of the world is transformed, everything is different. You see people and situations in a new light, are able let go of whatever was holding you back and act - one small step at a time.

Agenda:

1. Read "First Things First"

2. Define my goals for First Things

3. Seek accountability for progress

4. Use OM