Tuesday Listening

Tuesday is my day to look at my social and emotional self, make an effort to shift my perspectives around how I view and treat the people in my life, and get ready for a week of fun activities with my grandsons.

Agenda:

1. Read "Tiny Habits"

2. Choose behaviors for equanimity

3. New narrative for equanimity

4. Create clarity

Say Yes

Friday is my day for proaction: Proaction is taking initiative to anticipate and shape future events rather than simply reacting to circumstances as they happen. Some people think Covey should've just used the word ACT, but proaction requires a thought: "I could do this or I could do that; I choose to do this."

On Fridays I take steps to maintain clarity of purpose, keep the end in mind, monitor my progress, and recommit. I often journal a bit about the future, and my dreams and goals: What GREAT things do I want to accomplish? How will I serve people? How will I use my talents? How will I stretch myself? How can I become an “island of excellence”? What is essential?

Agenda:

1. Read "The Achievement Habit"

2. Clarity for Service

3. The end plan

4. Proaction and reciprocity plans

Creative Clarity

I'm on a clarity kick, trying to understand how I want to direct my energy in the next months of my life. My priorities are those activities, good deeds, responsibilities, people, disciplines, and whatever else seems most important and feels most meaningful to me, now.

Thursday is my day to open the door to creative thinking and doing, so today I'll take time to think about my path forward.

Agenda: 

1. Read "The Book of Doing and Being"

2. Creative visioning

3. Projects for the week

4. Functional creativity

Prepare for Caregiving

Caregiving is not my forte. I'm not patient with weakness, and I am generally selfish with my time. Also, my Patient is not the best patient! He will be crabby and he will push my buttons. But we love each other and love will carry us through this.

Today, as I wait in the hospital, I'm gearing up for the stresses I will face in the days ahead.

Agenda:

1. Read "That Clear and Certain Sound"

2. Hospital Beingness

3. The procedure

4. After-care

5. Caregiver roles

Sunday for Getting My Head on Straight

Life is getting complex. I need to slow it down and get some clarity.

 

Agenda today:

1. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

2. Power mapping preparations

3. Awareness practice for the week

4. Creative visualization

Days of Passion

I began a Slow Passion Project last July, working to SLOW DOWN and GO WITH the FLOW, and INVOLVE MY WHOLE SELF in my Nature-Culture project. It went pretty well for a while, and now I want to recommit and reignite!

Agenda:

1. Read "The Art of Simple Living"

2. Clarify my passion plan

3. Ongo journal

4. Four days of passion

5. Flow plan

Week of Passion

On Sunday I began 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.

The parts of passion are drive, commitment, concentration, clarity, and flow.

Agenda:

1. Read "Brainstorm"

2. Clarify my passion plan
3. Four days of passion

Advent Sabbath for Clarity

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 one week into Advent, and so far the pace has been slow and calm. Today I will take some time to just enjoy the grace of the season.

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.

I've been seeking clearness on my next steps in my roles as activist, teacher, artist, and writer, and today I will hold these roles in my heart as I go through my simple day.

Agenda:

1. Read "Comfortable with Uncertainty"

2. Review clearness

3. Plan clearness meetings

New White Moon (and Prepare for Advent)

Tonight is the new moon. The Chinese call the eleventh new moon the White Moon, perhaps because it brings the snow, or perhaps because it's a yin time of year.

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, set intentions, and initiate something new.

And tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time of expectant waiting, and today I will actively prepare to wait. I will get my house and my heart ready for this complicated winter season of holidays.

The darkness of winter puts limits on our lives. Chinese philosophy says winter is a time of conservation and storage; the night, the feminine, water, and cold is dominant. We slow down, go inward, and spend more time on quiet, yin activities.

Luckily, advent is four weeks long, allowing us to grow slowly and steadily towards the light: Let yourself go inward now - be like the bear in her cave, saving your strength and relishing the darkness. Don't celebrate Christmas too soon; allow yourself to experience the darkness of winter, against which it shines.

Agenda Today:

1. Retreat Day

2. Journal queries

3. Choose a month theme

4. New moon altar

5. Open-Heart meditation

6. Space clearing

7. Make an Advent Wreath

New Dragon Moon

Tonight is the new moon; the Chinese call the fifth new moon the Dragon Moon. Chinese dragons are a symbol of cosmic Chi, good fortune, and new beginnings, but the time around the Dragon Moon is strongly yang, with bright sunlight and moist heat. The Chinese consider this to be a dangerous and unhealthy season and they have customs to protect against the excessive yang energy.

I feel strong and effective when I am able to harness my yang energy to get stuff done, but I like to remember that yang's best aim is to protect yin, and yin's best function is to nurture yang; life is good when I have each in a kind of dynamic balance.

This week I will make an effort to bring a balance of restorative yin energy to my life: Slow down, rest well, drink more water, and practice ‘discipline of purpose’.

Agenda:

1. Retreat Day plan

2. Read "It's a Meaningful Life"

3. Choose a month theme

4. Set intentions

5. New moon altar and meditation

6. Blessings Walk

First Quarter Moon

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.

Agenda Today:

1. Read Writing and Being

2. Write an epigraph

3. Journal queries

4. Choose a self-cultivation project

5. Make a full effort plan

First Quarter Moon of August

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 August quarter moon's energy to help me to discern my path, and then act on it; this requires clarity.

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries
2. Read "How to Manifest"

3. Make a full effort plan
4. Write a mission haiku

Finding clarity

Seeking clearness is the last step in a discernment process. Clarity - that feeling that you know what you stand for, you are sure of your objectives, you have set the best intentions, and you understand your next move - is liberating and empowering.

Most of the time we don't wait for clarity; we act on autopilot, or on other's expectations and assurances, or because the situation is urgent. Waiting for clarity seems selfish or exhausting or just impossible. But being clear in your heart that you are on the right path is a wonderful thing to wait for; it's transformative!

Agenda:

1. Discernment

2. Prepare for clarity

3. A clearness meeting

2023 Lent Calendar, Week 3

March 5, Sabbath for Calm- 

Each Sunday during Lent, I like to pick a theme to give attention to; last Sunday it was forgiveness, and today it's calm. Calmness is a quality of being: At peace, relaxed in my body, steady and easy. Calmness is one aspect of resilience - if I can remain calm, I will better navigate a crisis situation, whenever it comes.

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. Queries: 

What have I learned so far this Lent? 

What do I need to do or learn next, in order to improve my rootedness, my strength (body, mind, spirit), and my resilience?

2. Resilience reading: This Lent I'm reading daily from the book, "101 Mindful Ways to Build Resilience," by Donald Altman, which offers simple ideas for being more rooted in my body and mind. The first section is about Calm, and today I went back through the first 10 practices to review. 

Morning blessing: Today I'm blessed with an unexpected and peaceful snow day.

3. Nature journal: I've been enjoying my dive into the Nature Mentor website. The writer, Brian Mertins, offers a practical approach to awakening naturalist instincts by building skills with plants and birds. Since reading about crows last week, I've been hearing crows all day! Today I observed a crow acting as sentry while three others ate worms in the snowy lawn below.

I'm trying to remember to record my observations in my little nature journal.

4. Plastic fast: My focus this third week of Lent is my kitchen.

Look around your kitchen to see what plastics you can reuse, what you can replace, and what you should not buy again. Focus on your use of single use plastics; most of us will continue to use existing reusable plastic containers, utensils, etc. until they’re worn out.

First tip: Buy dish soap and other cleaners in bulk, using your own glass jars. But first find out what becomes of the bulk plastic jugs at the stores. Are they sent back to be re-filled? (One store we are sure of is Bhumi Refillery. The owner can tell you what happens to every jug in the store.)

Or try using bar soap to wash dishes- regular castile soap works for dishes, or try one of these zero-waste dish soap bars.

March 6-

1. Nature Mentor: I decided to move on from crows to juncos today, with Brian Mertin's 12 Essential Facts About Juncos That Everyone Should Know. I learned that there are 5 common types of juncos (the ones we see are called Oregon Juncos) but they’re all really the same bird, known as the Dark-Eyed Junco, and they are in the Sparrow family.

And I learned what their song sounds like. Brian says, "To me, the Junco song sounds like hearing an old telephone ringing through a partially opened window." (The site has a great audio recording that contains two Juncos singing in the same area.)

2. Resilience practice: Even though I haven't finished the section on Calm, I've decided to move on to section two: Clarity. "By skillfully staying clear, engaged, and present, you avoid the daily traps that sap your precious energy, focus, purpose ... and self-knowing awareness and insight."

Practice #26 is the protein cure. Eat a small serving of protein every 2-3 hours. Protein strengthens clarity in several ways, and different kinds of protein help with different strengths:

• Attention and motivation: Dairy products, almonds, sesame seeds, plus fruits.
• Calmness: Peanut butter, turkey, and cottage cheese.
• Thinking and memory: Eggs, salmon, and whole wheat bread.

3. Creative action: This is the day of our monthly Earthcare Support Group meeting that I facilitate. Our agenda is:

1. Share our current earthcare focuses, and favorite tidbits from Braiding Sweetgrass, sections 12-13.

2. Plastics minute outreach: Plastics-Free Challenge, Share Fair plans

3. In-person gathering? Possible Meeting for Worship at the Masonic Cemetery?

 

4. Plastic fast: Use natural cleaning supplies. Use rag cloths, or compressed natural cellulose sponges, instead of plastic & synthetic sponges. Use a dish brush with a wooden handle and compostable bristles. Use biodegradable natural rubber latex gloves for food prep & cleaning.

March 7, full moon-

1. Nature Mentor: I continued with Brian Mertin's 12 Essential Facts About Juncos That Everyone Should Know, and learned that they make their nests on the ground or just a few inches off the ground! (I already knew that they are ground feeders, but this just amazes me!) I'll keep my eyes open this spring, but they might not be around here to nest, because they go north when it gets warm.

2. Resilience practice: I'm reading section two, on Clarity. Practice #27 is Teflon for Cravings: It's about how to let cravings and urges roll off of you, whenever one is distracting your focus. He describes cravings as "powerful gusts of wind that can appear quickly and ... spin you out of control ..."  

1. Get curious. Ask yourself, "How frequently do I have this craving? Is it located in my body or my mind? What feeling precedes the craving, and does the craving address the feeling, or is it just an escape?" 
2. Rate the intensity of the craving on a scale of 1 to 5. Sit with the craving for just a few minutes, and notice how long it lasts and how the intensity changes.
3. Notice if sitting with a craving or urge without acting on it, even for just a few minutes, allows you to detach a little bit. When you feel a small distance, can you consider an alternative that allows you to be focused?

3. Celebrate resilience: 

My theme this month has been strength and resilience, and I'm learning skills for calmness and clarity. Today, at the full moon, I will remind myself of my intentions, 

celebrate my accomplishments, and reaffirm this theme for the next two weeks. 

Each month I choose a different way to celebrate the full moon, and today I am ready to celebrate my strengths in three ways:

1. Go on a fun outing to town with my grandson (calmly)

2. Work on my collage project (with clarity)

4. Plastic fast: Avoid plastic wrap and zip-log bags. While convenient, plastic wrap tends to be single-use and Ziploc bags don’t last forever. They end up in the trash, impossible to recycle. Find reusable alternatives, such as silicon bags (which are even freezer safe) and beeswax wrap, or if you're trying to avoid buying new items, the trusted "plate to cover a bowl, and a bowl to cover a plate" method will also keep your food fresh.

Tip: Store greens in wet terry cloth bags; put cut celery sticks in a glass with water.

March 8, International Women's Day - 

1. Nature Mentor: I continued with Brian Mertin's 12 Essential Facts About Juncos That Everyone Should Know, and learned about the Junco alarm call, which is a very subtle "tip, tip, tip" sound. 

Brian says, "Due to their extreme alertness, ground-dwelling habits & complex alarm language, Juncos are excellent teachers of awareness and sensitivity to nature. Juncos are very sensitive to humans who violate their personal space, at times making it quite tricky to get close to juncos."

2. Resilience practice: I'm reading section two, on Clarity. Practice #28 is Change the History Channel, referring to the stories, anxieties, and memories that replay in your brain. When they distract you from the present moment it's good to know how to "use the remote."

1. When you notice a memory that is distracting you, interrupt it and say, "It's that old channel playing."
2. Turn your attention elsewhere by taking a deep breath, exhaling slowly, and making a physical motion of pushing the memory away. Say, "I'm switching to the NOW station."
3. Refocus your thoughts on what you are doing, and say, "I'm doing (this) now."

3. Creative action: Today I'm attending the monthly meeting of the Interfaith Earthkeepers. 

Our call to action is "

The health of human communities is dependent upon the health of every interlocking piece of creation: the forests, plains and oceans and all the creatures that inhabit them. Let us go forward to live in right relationship with the whole of creation."

4. Plastic fast: Find alternatives to plastic for the freezer. Canning jars are very good for freezing, as long as you use the wide-mouth variety and do not fill to the very top; leave a good inch at least for the contents to expand. (Regular glass jars are not recommended for freezing because their non- tempered glass can expand and contract with temperature fluctuations and cause breakage and explosions.) See this article for many other freezer solutions: How to Freeze Food Without Plastic.

March 9-

1. Nature Mentor: Yesterday I finished up with Brian Mertin's look at Junco's, which led me to this fantastic post: How Does Animal Communication Work?

Animal communication is first and foremost the ability to consciously observe, interpret and broadcast behavioral messages that normally happen subconsciously. This includes things like body language, eye contact, emotional state, and the overall vibe being broadcast by your attitude & attentiveness.

Animals are extremely sensitive to non-verbal cues & behavior that most humans completely ignore.

He goes on to describe two skills required to communicate with animals:

1. First – You need to consciously observe and evaluate the messages being broadcast by a particular animal.
2. Second – You need to adjust your own non-verbal communication to broadcast a feeling of safety, trust and mutual understanding. 

2. Resilience practice: I'm reading section two, on Clarity. Practice #29 is Control the Elevator. Use this practice when you want to feel in control of your emotional elevator, and not allow others to push your buttons! This practice gives you clarity in the face of the uncertainty and changes that occur in the moment.

1. Take time today to make a list of the external events and persons who operated your mood elevator this week: Write a one-sentence snapshot picture of each, and note how your mood reacted: Up, down, or steady.
2. Now write a sentence with an alternative scenario for each: What perspective or interpretation (understanding, amusement, acceptance, equanimity, wisdom...) could you have adopted that would have allowed you to keep control of your elevator?
3. Try one of these perspectives next time someone pushes your buttons!

3. Plastic fast: Stop using plastic trash bags. You might consider the pros and cons of using compostable trash bags; if a bag is certified compostable by the Biodegradable Products Institute, that means at least 90% of its plant-based material completely breaks down within 84 days in an industrial compost facility. However, when a compostable bag is tossed in the landfill, it's starved of the oxygen it needs to break down. Instead, it just sits there and can stick around for a similar amount of time as that plastic garbage bag.

You can also look for "landfill-bound bags" made from recycled plastics. Or re-use paper shopping bags. Or look at this article about going trash-bag-free: Kitchen Trash Bags — Green Alternatives. At the end of the day, the most eco-friendly thing you can do is to throw out less stuff.

March 10-

1. Nature Mentor: Continuing with Brian Mertin's fantastic post: How Does Animal Communication Work? He talks about learning how to attract animal's trust, like St. Francis of Assisi. If you spend a lot of time in nature you might develop this skill.

As you develop into a more sensitive and perceptive person, it leads to certain changes in your body language & overall energy level that causes animals to treat you differently. With practice adjusting the overall vibe you put off, animals will gradually become less and less likely to tuck tail and run whenever you enter the forest.

He also reminds us that animal noises don't translate into words. Animals communicate in a much more primitive and instinctive manner, with body language, eye contact, personal space, territory, safety, empathy & intuition. So we need to stop thinking like a human and get into the mindset of an animal.

 

2. Resilience practice: I'm reading section two, on Clarity. Practice #30 is Do the Next Thing. When you feel overwhelmed, one way to bring clarity, and stay present with the journey of your life, is to focus on the one thing you can do next. It doesn't matter what it is you are working on - even simple things like grocery shopping can feel overwhelming sometimes.

1. Break down the current goal to its smallest, simplest parts, in order (step one, step two, etc.)
2. Choose a realistic amount of time to work on the first step, then work on it for that much time. Success! Even if you didn't finish, you did it for the allotted time and that's success. 
3. You can choose to stop and move on to the next "Next Thing," or continue for another allotted time.

3. Plastic fast: Get cooking. Can't live without hummus, yogurt, bread, and other foods only packed in plastic? Slow down this Lent and prepare these foods at home. Here's a recipe for Yogurt Made in an Instant Pot, and here's one for Easy Homemade Hummus.

March 11-

1. Nature Mentor: Continuing with Brian Mertin's fantastic post: How Does Animal Communication Work? 

Since animal communication is primarily non-verbal, it’s extremely important to focus on what your senses are telling you. This is all about observation, body language, tone of voice, eye contact, and being tuned in with how your own body language is affecting the comfort level and behavior of animals around you. This is pretty subtle stuff if you’ve never trained your eyes to spot these cues! It means you need to have really good sensory acuity.

 

His formula for animal communication is sensory awareness + intuition (but it's a kind of common-sense-informed intuition), and you can develop both of these. Brian suggests that these are both important, and as you work on systematically developing your sensory awareness, you should also keep an intuition journal, to record whenever you get a gut feeling, or a flash of an image in your mind.

...keep 80-90% of your focus external, and 10-20% internal. This seems to be the best ratio of staying connected with your senses, while also tracking the information coming from your instincts. Sometimes it might come in the form of a mental flash or insight, or you might get a gut sense of being pushed or pulled in a certain direction. ... You can’t really explain it, but if you take an attitude of curiosity, I think you’ll see there’s actually some useful information here.

  

2. Resilience practice: I'm reading section two, on Clarity. Practice #31 is Uni-task. Though we are under the illusion that we can do many things at the same time, the thinking brain really does one thing at a time; multi-tasking actually slows us down. Training yourself to do one thing at a time (reading, cleaning, driving, having a conversation, etc.) will bring clarity and a sense of accomplishment to whatever you do.

1. Set the intention to do one thing without interruption, then do it: Devote yourself 100% to the experience of whatever it is. Really notice how it feels to do it, and how you feel.
2. If you become distracted by other thoughts or sensations, or if something external distracts you, notice it, then restate your intention, re-focus and return to the doing.

3. Creative action: 

Today I have a wide-open day to fill with the work of creating my vision here on the earth. I'm taking a Sabbath Day for Action, to work on sewing and gardening and other offerings to the universe. 

4. Plastic fast: Remember Simplicity. Simplicity requires us to cut away everything that is extraneous, so that our outward life fully reflects our inward life. It's easy to get caught up in buying fancy products to replace our plastic habits, but first, look around for alternatives you already have; re-use glass jars and plastic containers you already own. Wash and reuse Ziplock bags. This is a transition to using less, which ideally, won't require buying more. If you are able to transition to more sustainable products as you run out of things, great!

Query: Do we center our lives in the awareness of God so that all things take their rightful place?