Wednesday Reflections

Wednesday is my day to re-group and re-define my week. First I make a plan for getting over the bump of the mid-week, then I re-envision my emotional tone and perspective.

This is the time of the waning crescent "balsamic moon" - the final yin phase, a pause that marks the end point in this cycle. Now 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. Re-group plan

2. Read "Your Heart Was Made for This"

3. New narrative for simplicity and restraint

4. Writing themes

1. Re-group plan:

Today I will define my top priorities for the week, and make a plan for when to work on them:

1. Make a jet pack: Today I'll collect supplies (tubes? frame?) and make a prototype. Friday we will finish sewing
2. Clearing craft boxes: Work on this every afternoon - Decide which projects we might work on this winter and put them into plastic bags.
3. House painting: I finished painting the house corner; Today I will clean the gutters left of the porch, and repair them a bit. so I can finish early next week.
4. Fall planting: Tomorrow I will dig up and transplant the little hidden plant, and also checker mellow; Friday I will plant out lettuces and bok choy.

2. Read "Your Heart Was Made for This":

I'm reading this book by Oren Jay Sofer (2023), with the subtitle, "Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love". It has 26 short chapters on innate qualities we each have, that we can cultivate and develop as inner and external expression, meant to be read and practiced in order, one every 1-2 weeks.

I'm on to Chapter 9, Renunciation. about letting go. Renunciation is an inner resource of simplicity, restraint, and freedom from craving and addiction. It can help me to clarify my priorities, slow down, engage with challenges, adapt to crisis, and honor the natural limits of our planet.

Its aim is fulfillment, not deprivation. "When we long for what we don't have, we overlook what we do have and rob ourselves of contentment." 

So renunciation is my work this fall: It helps with my home projects, my earthcare focus, and with anger and distraction. I want to frame it as restraint, simplicity, and fulfillment.

Reflection: Begin by discerning what I really need, and which of my desires are healthy. Take time this week to notice what entices me, and what I want or need. Investigate what my heart longs for, beneath my cravings. Decide what to renounce: Anger, over-spending, long periods of gaming, papers, notebooks...

3. New narrative for simplicity and restraint:

One of my weekly Creative Perspective tasks is to define a new narrative, today for the habit of simplicity and restraint. I find this fall that I need to pull myself back a bit and hone down to the most important things - with finances, projects, responsibilities, 

This week I will shift towards restraint with commitments, emotions, spending, and hoarding.

4. Writing themes:

I have finally fallen into a steady, daily obsession for my writing project. Today I will set themes and topics for writing and research for the next week:

• W-Th-F: Leave your wildlife garden wild: Fall habitat clean up: Leave the seed heads etc
• Sat-Sun-M: Awareness of Indigenous People's Day: Being indigenous
• T-W: Bee care integrity