Thursday for Preparedness

Thursday is my day to open the door to creative thinking and doing; I've reverted to an earlier phase of my life, before painting and art school, when I was internally driven to Make Things, and they were varied and creative. But I'm also a different person now - as Grandma Earth Teacher I am led to make things that are a gift to the Earth in some way, sustainable, and with a message. 

Also, I need to prepare for a summer of Grandma Camps, with themes, projects, and field trips.

And thirdly, I've got lots of projects that help us function better: Fixing broken things and maintaining the house.

Agenda: 

1. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

2. Projects for the week

3. Camp preparedness

4. Gratitude meditation

5. Sigel for preparedness

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday is the day when Jesus and his disciples gathered to share the Passover meal known as the Last Supper. Maundy is an English word that comes from the Latin mandatum, referring to the new commandment that Jesus made on that night: 

“A new commandment I give to you, that you Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another.” (John 13:34). 

On this day three important events are documented.

First, Jesus showed his great love and humility by washing the feet of his disciples.

Second was the introduction of the Eucharist.

Thirdly, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemani to pray and was betrayed by Judas and arrested.

Agenda today:

1. Show love and humility
2. Eat mindfully
3. Find new clothes for Easter

4. Take a bubble bath
5. Go to the garden tonight to pray

March Creativity

Today I have a wide-open day to fill with the work of creating my vision here on the earth. 

Agenda:

1. Beingness 

2. Earth Action

3. Read "The Book of Doing and Being"

4. Creative Imagining for cleansing

5. Cleansing ritual for Earth Unity

6. Teaching brainstorm

7. Projects for the week

New Year Perspective

We're a week into the New Year, and a lot has already happened. I've studied and talked and written about positivity and a new perspective, and then Ice Agents shot a Mom in her car.

My neighbor asked me, what do we do? I said, we do what we can - write letters, work at legislation, talk to people, but I understand how she feels. The events are too heavy for us to carry. How often can we rise up in grief and protest, and put our own lives at risk? 

Agenda:

1. Read "Perspective"

2. Identify a past failure

3. Inner peace practice

4. Kitchen blessing

My Birthday for a New Perspective

Today is the start of my 70th year -  and this calls for an acknowledgement and celebration of a real shift in perspective. Aging has brought a natural evolution of my priorities, and a realignment of the perceived importance of all the small traumas of life. I find I am generally happier and less attached to grudges and blue moods. I feel a profound sense of contentment from simply being present with the people I love. 

Agenda:

1. Generosity practice

2. Rite of initiation

3. Read "Find Your Unicorn Space"

4. Beginner's mind for creativity

5. Pre-K school plans

6. Projects for the week

7. Winter nature tray

Sabbath for Intentions

This is the eleventh day of the twelve-day festal tide - we have two days of Christmas left! I celebrate these last days in Sabbath mode, doing as little work as possible, resting, reflecting, and finding peace within.

I spent all of advent reviewing and brainstorming my principles and new priorities, and today I will begin to set some intentions for the New Year.

Agenda:

1. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

2. Prepare for initiation

3. Ongo journal

4. Set intentions

5. Create an intentions ritual

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 many years now.

This is the final day of 2025; it's time to see it out, and welcome in the New Year! 

Agenda today:

1. 

Kwanzaa principle

2

.

 

Light a pretend candle for celebration

3. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

4. Soyal retreat practices for celebration

5. Celebration brainstorm

6. Resolutions

7. Make noise!

Winternights

The Winternights, or Vetrnætr, is a twelve-day festival that begins on a night in mid-October, and marks the end of summer and the start of the winter. The name Vetrnætr (pronounced Vetter-natter) is Old Norse, composed of two words, vetr - meaning winter, and nætr - meaning nights. Vetrnætr is series of feasts and ceremonies (blóts, pronounced bloots) that celebrate the bounty of the harvest, and also honor the Disir, or female ancestor spirits.

2022 ofrenda

Vetrnætr is celebrated by the Ásatrú; Ásatrú is an Icelandic name, taken by the modern-day Norse and Germanic people who worship the old northern gods (such as Thor, Odin, and Frey) and goddesses (such as Freya and Frigg). Though its practice was interrupted, Ásatrú has been reconstructed as closely as possible to the original religion of the Northern European people, based on the surviving historical records. Ásatrú intrigues me, because it would have been the religion of my ancestors.

This month, Winternights festivals are held across Scandinavia, Germany, and New England and are marked by bonfires, tournaments, feasts, and arts and crafts vendors.

Agenda for today:

1. Ongo Journal

2. Set up my ancestor altar (ofrenda)

3. Disir meditation
4. Make more runes

5. Feast and blót

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

Las Posadas and the Christmas Novena

Tonight is the start of Las Posadas, a nine-day Mexican celebration that begins on December 16 each year. Posadas is Spanish for "lodging", and the nine days represent the nine months of Mary's pregnancy. In Mexico, people gather tonight and carry candles and clay figures of Mary and Joseph from house to house, reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for a room at an inn. They are turned away again and again with a rude “No!” Finally, one house allows them to enter, and everyone celebrates with food and a piñata. The procession is repeated each night through Christmas Eve, ending with a party at a different house.

Tonight is also the start of the Christmas Novena in Italy. A Novena is a Catholic ritual, a prayer repeated daily for nine days. It can take place at any time of the year, but one of the most observed is the Christmas Novena, recited or sung during the nine days leading up to Christmas day. Las Posadas comes from that same tradition.

Agenda:

1. Read a novena

2. Set out our crèche

3. Make cucidati (Italian fig cookies)

4. Plan a piñata party!

Transformative Habits

I've been reviewing some of the transformative habits I've developed over the years. Last week I wrote about the journal-brainstorm process, and a vision walk, which are steps in discernment. Today I'll write a bit more about discernment, and some of the steps after discernment.

Agenda:

I. Read PowerHunch

2. Visualization

3. Review intentions

4. Morning ritual

Morning Ritual for Lent

My theme for Lent is Simple Living, and so far I've looked at some components of a simpler schedule and a simpler house, but I'm missing a connection to simple living and intentional living; my days are currently lacking the energetic shift I get when my priorities are clear.

Today I've decided to re-evaluate my morning routine, because when it's done right my morning-time ritual gives me the energy and focus I need for the whole day. I think I need a few simple tweaks, with inspirational elements.

Morning Routine Components:

1. Review and update my schedule

2. Effective habits journal

3. Print an inspiration page

4. Visualization ritual

Twefth Night

The evening of January 5th is called Twelfth Night, the Eve of the Epiphany, the night that the three Magi traveled to Bethlehem to see the newborn baby Jesus.

In Italy, the story goes, the Befana (short for Epiphania) was busy sweeping her floor that night, when the Magi stopped at her house. They invited her to come along with them on their trip to see Jesus but she said she was too busy.

Later she changed her mind and decided to follow, but she couldn’t find them. She continues her search each year on Twelfth Night, flying on a broom, going from house to house and leaving gifts.

Agenda:

1. Christmas retreat

2. Read "Writing and Being"

3. Discern a theme for 2024

4. Sweeping

5. Make Focaccia della Befana

6. Leave gifts

New Year's Day

Today is the first day of a new year in my part of the world. I celebrate many beginnings throughout my year, but January 1 has emotional importance because it’s the New Year of my childhood.

January gets its name from Janus, the two-faced Roman God of gates and doorways; it's a month to look back with reflection and forward with hope. I stand at the doorway of this coming year with my mind open and curious, without fear or judgment, and with hope for the gifts that the year will deliver.

As I stand here, I remember that not all gifts are rosy. I thank the Creator for the shadows and mysteries, and potent gifts of sadness. When I live in the reality of the moment more than in my hopes and expectations, I can receive the riches that are hidden within my most challenging experiences - the gifts of compassion, self-awareness, creativity, wisdom, patience, love, strength of character, and integrity.

Agenda for today:

1. Christmas retreat

2. Kwanzaa principles

3. Set the tone for the New Year

4. Read from "Writing and Being"

5. Eat Hoppin' John

6. Wassail my apple tree