Monday Monday

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and how I will step up for the Natural Living Challenge. 

Agenda this week:

1. Read "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning"

2. Order plans for the week

3. Self-care

Monday

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and how I will step up for the Natural Living Challenge. 

Agenda this week:

1. Read "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning"

2. Order plans for the week

3. Natural living

4. Release the bees

Boot Camp Monday

Painted Lady

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and get ready for a week of fun activities with my grandsons. 

This week at the full moon I discerned a new intention: 

I intend to list clear actionable steps towards paring down, resilience habits, delegation, care-taking, and community-building because the next 2-weeks are our boot camp for the long haul of recovery.

The truth is that I need to control the bits I can control: MY habits, my preparations and negotiations, my integrity and compassion. So, for the next two weeks I'm putting myself through Resilience Boot Camp! And today is Day Two.

Agenda this week:

1. Love Meditation

2. Review "How to Keep House While Drowning"

3. A simple living room

4. Health and renewal plans

5. May nature tray

First Quarter Moon of Late January

Today 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 and full effort.

I use this late January quarter moon's energy to lean in to love.

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries

2. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

3. Ongo  journal

4. Love cycle

5. Full effort for order

Retreat for Home and Garden

Today I have an entire day alone! I get to read, write, take a webinar, go for a walk, and paint some butterflies in the bathroom.

I've been pretty focused and effective this week, except with housework. In fact, I've been putting things off all month. It's time for a reset, and some earnest time with housekeeping and order.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Art of Simple Living"

2. Discard what I don't need

3. Today's housecleaning catch-up

4. House blessing ceremony 

Alban Arthan

Alban Arthan is the Celtic and Druidic name for the Winter Solstice; it's Welsh for Light of Winter.

The Winter Solstice was never a one day festival - three days seems to be the minimum. The sun appears to stand still for three days, then days begin to noticeably increase in length (and we all sigh in relief). 

Alban Arthan is a celebration of the strengthening sun, and the central theme is renewal; we leave the past behind and greet the new. The world is undergoing constant change and we must change and adjust, too, in order to be able to survive.

From A Druid Way: "One link between the objective and the subjective is awen, inspiration, the flow of spirit, which lets us evoke in others an echo of our original experience. Let the echo be strong enough, let our understanding of this thing called being human, and our skill in working with it, run equal to the task, and music, image, voice, story, object of craft can all serve to unite us in the experience of mystery. An echo from outside awakens a resonance within us." 

Agenda today:

1. Read a novena

2. Druid peace prayer 

3. Light a candle for Order

4. Read "Spirit Walker"

5. Soyal retreat practices for order and self-care

6. Self-care practices brainstorm

7. Pre-school plans

8. Home order practices

Hanukkah

Hanukkah 2021

Tonight is the first night of the eight day Jewish holiday known as the Festival of Lights. Hanukkah is observed beginning 3 days before the new moon closest to the winter solstice, at the darkest part of the moon phase and the darkest part of the sun phase.

At the new moon I will move to a new theme focus - from grace to stillness, a perfect theme for this next phase of my life. 

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health, home, holiday, and prepare for Grandson fun. Today I'm also making a few transition-to-stillness plans for the week:

• Clear in-basket and one box of stuff in the office
• A big end-of-year journal brainstorm
• Finish some books (Sweet Spot? Present Moment?) so I can start new books

Agenda:

1. Read "The Sweet Spot"

2. Advent school plans

3. Fall Order and Home projects

4. Prepare for Hanukkah

5. Make potato latkes

6. Hanukia Ceremony

Doing Without Trying

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.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Sweet Spot"

2. Home projects

3. Plan for Nature-Culture flow

4. Creative visualization

Spiritual Simplicity and Order

Spiritual simplicity and order is my practice of the week, and it's all about attention to Truth, Love and Creation. When I make time for these in my life, other things fall away. 

Spiritual order then refers to this state of balanced alignment of my internal and external lives with a divine purpose, creating harmony and peace rather than chaos or excess. 

Agenda:

1. Awareness

2. Divestment

3. Enjoyment

Our Studio

The space we call The Studio used to be a garage. We turned it in to a space for teaching art classes, and it functioned that way for many years. Now it's having a second metamorphosis - I'm not teaching anymore, and we need:

• more effective (longer term) storage
• clearer floor space for kid play
• fewer art tools and supplies
• less counter space (which just gets filled with clutter)
• less clutter!

Agenda:

1. The vision

2. The work

3. Love Meditation

Practice Organization

Highly-organized people, like myself, have the mental strength to create solid, motivating core beliefs, which lead to disciplined habits that are based on who we truly are. We keep our priorities front and center and get things done!

When I am disorganized, like I am this week after a trip to the coast followed by illness, I feel vague, distracted, and worried.

Like all habits, organization requires effort and attention, and needs to be built slowly. It’s the little things I do on a daily basis that have an impact on the quality of my life. When I get my system down, and my habits are on track, things go smoothly and I’m more effective at each task because it gets my full focus. Also, I’m more likely to be responsible and keep my commitments, which leads to trusting relationships. I feel good about what I’m doing, and I’m able to focus on what’s in front of me, confident that everything else is in its place.

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 and for a return to order.

Agenda:
1. Read "The Sweet Spot"

2. Love meditation

3. Organization goals

Simple Living

I've been working at creating order in our house, by building habits of simplicity and orderliness, because creating a peaceful and efficient sanctuary creates a feeling of stability which is a basic practice of resilience.

And besides that, habits of simplicity and order aid me in reducing my consumption, and using only my share of the earth’s resources, which is the honorable and sustainable thing to do, and is one way that I show reverence for the Earth and for God. 

Agenda:

1. Read "One Year to an Organized Life":

2. Clean and clear the bedrooms
3. Simple steps for health

4. Review essential intentions

Living Room Questions

The living room is the sanctuary of our home, where we gather to be safe and together. It's the entry to our home, the welcoming arena, and where we celebrate life together. This is a shared family space: We fill and arrange the room together; it’s our creation- we speak our souls into the emptiness, and suddenly, there is life. 

Agenda today:

1. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

2. Clean and clear the living room

3. Simple steps for health

My Room

I'm lucky to have a room to call mine; this small room (which is just called My Room) is where I spend most of my alone time - where I write every morning, and return to throughout the day to recenter and catch my breath.

A room of my own has always been essential for me, because I am an introvert. I have always needed a room with a closed door, and plenty of quiet time to be alone in it - time to read, collect things, make up stories, become an expert at something, listen to rock & roll, or browse the internet. This is not passive or wasted time; I am intensely focused on filling myself up with creative energy and juicy ideas, and the harmony and balance I need to succeed.

My Room is pretty packed with stuff; it's where I store my computer, my clothes, most of my books, my sewing machine and ironing board, and my photo albums and memorabilia. It feels cramped and cluttered, even though it's pretty tidy. This final week of January I will devote to creating some order and peace in here.

Agenda today:

1. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

2. Clean and clear My Room

3. Simple steps for health

Day of Order

My sabbath is a good day to get organized for the week. Order means to "let all your things have their places, and let each part of your business have its time"; today I will take it slow, and ease in to order. 

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.

Agenda today:

1. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

2. Start an evening routine

3. Simple steps for health and order

4. Make pitcher of green smoothie

5. Clean and clear the bathroom

Active Hope

My theme this year is Active Hope.

None of us know what the future holds - what movements might rise up; what a big corporation may suddenly decide to do; what planetary shifts might still occur. But as environmental journalist Arno Kopecky writes in his book “The Environmentalist’s Dilemma”: We are “living on borrowed time. The worst is yet to come.”

Agenda:

1. Review the Divine Laws
2. Prayer candle ceremony
3. Read "Active Hope"

4. Hope and resilience steps

5. Simple steps for health and order
6. Create an intentions ritual

Distaff Day

Woman with distaff in left hand, and spindle in right hand.

Distaff Day (January7) is named for the stick-like tool that holds fibers while a woman uses a drop spindle to spin thread.

Spinning and weaving were never-ending chores for pre-industrial women; most women and girls would spin thread while also cooking, caring for children, or minding the sheep. Because women were seen always with a distaff in hand, it became the symbol of “women’s work”. 

But during the Christmas season women took a break from spinning. January 7th was the traditional day for women to start back to work, and so was called Distaff Day.

Agenda:
1. Journal queries and spindle meditation

2. Review the Divine Laws

3. Prayer candle ceremony

4. Start a fiber project

5. Read "One Year to an Organized Life"

6. Clean and clear the kitchen

New Year's Eve

Tonight is New Year's Eve - a big night for many people. W and I are visiting family for the New year's weekend, as has been our tradition for a few years now.

This is the final day of 2024; it's time to see it out, and welcome in the New Year! 

Agenda today:

1. 

Kwanzaa principle

2. 

Christmas retreat brainstorm

3. Celebration plans

4. Resolutions

5. Simple steps for health and order

6. Make noise!

A Week of Virtue

Virtue is ethical behavior. It encompasses a wide array of very nice things like honesty, compassion, temperance, and so on. I think I'm mostly a good person, but I'd like to be better... I disappoint myself all the time.

A few years ago, I made virtue my theme for the whole year, and it was great! I've decided to make it the theme for this week to see how I might improve my virtuousness this summer.

When I first researched this, I ran across Ben Franklin's system for virtue improvement. Ben devised a small chart that he carried with himself, to record his behavior day-to-day in 13 areas. If you do a Google search you will see that MANY people are interested in Ben's system! You can buy journals and download charts if you want, but I knew I wouldn't be happy unless I personalized mine.

Agenda:
1. Create a virtue chart
2. Daily review

3. Practice optimism

4. Read "It's a Meaningful Life"

February Order

Humans love to create order out of chaos! It's one thing we do well. Life is filled with chaos, disorder and confusion, messiness, uncertainty, and misunderstanding; that's natural and normal. Order and chaos are fluid and interconnected: Order exists within chaos, and chaos exists within order.

Creating order when you can is a form of power; orderly habits and an orderly mind will bring you clarity and peace. Creating order is ground work: Put the order in place first, then everything that follows will flow more smoothly, and when chaos inevitably happen your orderly mind will be free to handle it with equanimity.

You cannot completely organize the chaos in your life but you can create a balance between the two, finding stability with order and using chaos as an impetus for growth. Too much order borders on obsession - I can accept that a certain amount of disorder is healthy and normal, and aim for just enough order to feel like I'm creating meaning, and accomplishing many of my priorities. (I wrote a whole book on this topic, called "Get Your Ducks in a Row." )

Agenda:

1. Habits of an orderly mind

2. My co-regulation plan

3. Household order

4. Simple steps for this week