Journal Brainstorm Week

Next week, at the new moon I will transition from one focus to another, and a whole new field of opportunity. This week I'll take time to write down my goals, dreams, and exciting ideas for the next 30-days, including at least a few crazy, improbable notions. 

-Start with a list of seasonal themes and celebrations, vacations, and other events.

-Write about my biggest priorities this month, how they might fit into my life, and how they connect to my values and principles.

-Write about possible obstacles and factors such as the weather, upcoming schedule changes, or money problems.

-Write about the parts that excite me and the parts that might be hard to find motivation for.

-This month I will also review the brainstorming I did in December, for the new year.

  

Agenda:

1. Read "The Spirited Walker"
2. Walking script

3. Self-care brainstorm
4. Sanctuary brainstorm

First Day of Christmas

Today is Christmas, but only the first day of Christmas (what Norwegians call 1. juledag). This is the start of the twelve-day festal tide adopted by the Christian Church: In 567 C.E. church leaders proclaimed the days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.

Now my preparations are finished, and I can relax with my family, eat, drink, and generally wallow in joyful abandon.

In some old traditions, this whole season is seen as a sort of Sabbath: Prepare ahead of time and then spend the Twelve Days doing as little work as possible. It's a good time to rest, reflect, and find peace within.

Agenda:

1

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Light a candle for sanctuary

2. Read "SoulSpace"

3. Soyal retreat practices for sanctuary

4. Sanctuary brainstorm

5. Open Gifts

6. Put Baby Jesus in the manger

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

Third Day of Christmas

This is the third day of the twelve-day festal tide - a sacred, festive season. I'm in Sabbath mode, spending these Twelve Days doing as little work as possible, resting, reflecting, and finding peace within.

And this year I've even started a puzzle!

Agenda:

1. Kwanza principle
2. Christmas retreat brainstorm

3. Sanctuary reading

4. Sanctuary plans

5. Tying loose ends

6. Make cookies

Advent Hope

This week of advent my theme is "family love and joy". One way I show my love is to maintain a well-ordered and peaceful sanctuary for my family and friends, and a welcome space for nature; also, maintaining my home and my land in good order is the honorable and sustainable thing to do, and is one way that I show reverence for the Earth and for God.

As I've said, my Earth-Quaker way of celebrating is to acknowledge and mark the changes of the season as they progress. The season of advent is when I celebrate the darkness, and the hope of returning light.

Darkness is not all bad; it can be cozy. Darkness leaves space for mystery, reflection, and quiet growth. But the world holds so much chaos, grief, war, famine and hunger; it's important to remember to have hope, and shine the light.

Agenda:

1. Love meditation

2. Read a novena

3. Read "Active Hope"
4. Rosy Future

5. Dawn prayer for Creation

6. Make a gingerbread house

Kakizome Day and Ninth Day of Christmas

This is Kakizome Day; kakizome means "first writing". Today people all over Japan will take time to use a brush and sumi ink to write out a favorite quote or phrase - the first calligraphy of the new year. Kakizome is a way to express your positive wishes for the New Year.

Agenda:

1. Christmas retreat

2. Read from "The Simpler Life"

3. Sanctuary goals for 2023

4. Clean and clear the kitchen

5. Practice writing

Sabbath for Sanctuary

A sanctuary is a sanctum, a sacred and protected place of beauty, grace and refuge. Our home and garden is a sanctuary for body and soul; it embraces us and brings us back to center. When we take sanctuary, even for brief moments, we are re-created, recharged, healed, soothed, comforted and at peace.

One of my New Year's resolutions is: 

Sanctuary: I intend to care for my land with discipline and ritual, and create a home that is a peaceful and well-ordered sanctuary for those I love, because maintaining my land in good order is the honorable and sustainable thing to do, and is one way that I show reverence for the Earth and for God.

What I like about this resolution is that it encompasses my home, my land, my family and friends, the Earth and God. It helps me to de-compartmentalize my life and see it as a whole.

I hope to continue to define and upgrade our sanctum, an ongoing discipline of inner work (seeking inspiration, and upgrading my habits) and projects (creating a place of peace that expresses who we are).

Agenda:

1. Read Happier at Home

2. Spring tidying

3. Spring cleaning

4. Spring gardening

Sanctuary

A sanctuary is a sanctum, a sacred and protected place of beauty, grace and refuge. Our home and garden is a sanctuary for body and soul; it embraces us and brings us back to center. When we take sanctuary, even for brief moments, we are re-created, recharged, healed, soothed, comforted and at peace.

This week I hope to continue to define and upgrade our sanctum; it's an ongoing discipline of inner work (seeking inspiration, and upgrading my habits) and projects (creating a place of peace that expresses who we are).

Agenda:

1. Journal queries on home and family

2. Word #4 - Discipline

3. Resolutions review

4. Sanctuary practices

1. Journal queries on home and family:

These are queries from the North Pacific Yearly Meeting book of Faith and Practice--

How do we make our homes places of friendliness, peace, and renewal, where God is real for those who live there and those who visit?

How do we maintain a climate of love and trust in our meeting which invites families to be open about their satisfactions and challenges? 

How do we keep commitments outside the home from encroaching on the time and loving attention the family needs for its health and well-being? 

Does our home life support our need for both a sense of personal identity and shared living? 

What supports do we offer to the aging, the widowed, the separated or divorced, and members of families affected by disruption or trauma? 

How does the meeting assist families to improve communication, family life, and the rearing of children in a context of love?

2. Word #4 - Discipline:

I'm reading a Pendle Hill pamphlet called Marking the Quaker Path: Seven Key Words Plus One, by Robert Griswold. This speaks to the condition of many Friends in my Meeting, who are ready to go deeper on this journey, and a large group of us are studying this booklet together this year.

The word this month is Discipline, which I started write about yesterday.

Discipline is a muscle that requires exercise. Being a Quaker is like perfecting a craft. "The discipline needed is the discipline of Quaker practice called 'good order' or 'Gospel order'. ... Our outrageous aim as Quakers is to discern the truth of Reality - and align our actions with the truth. We won't come close to that goal without discipline".

Quaker practice is slippery, because it doesn't have a set form. Early Quakers saw that the prayers and ceremonies of the Church were easily corrupted and could become prideful, so we have adopted the "discipline of silent presence." 

Griswold suggests that our personal practice should include daily silence, study, encouraging other Friends to question us about our inner life and the trajectory our life is taking, and deep listening to what is said by others. He says our spiritual disciplines are like tending the inner garden.

He also says that committee work is essential: "When we work with other Friends we learn that some of the certainties ... we have been carrying need to be examined. The Light coming through other Friends may shine into corners unfamiliar to us... Sharing work teaches us to bring our love, courage, and patience to our service. These lessons do not take root in us by our thinking about them or wishing for them. They become our humble strength by practice".

He ends this section by talking about the importance of listening  deeply to each other. "To build the trust needed for us to work together we need to cultivate a heart that can hear and eyes that can see all that is said or not said. ... As Friends we are required to cultivate the discipline of listening compassionately ..."

3. Resolutions review:

Speaking of discipline, I'm reviewing my New Year's resolutions this week and setting some small practices. I talked about my first resolution yesterday. The second is: 

Sanctuary: I intend to care for my land with discipline and ritual, and create a home that is a peaceful and well-ordered sanctuary for those I love, because maintaining my land in good order is the honorable and sustainable thing to do, and is one way that I show reverence for the Earth and for God.

What I like about this resolution is that it encompasses my home, my land, my family and friends, the Earth and God. It helps me to de-compartmentalize my life and see it as a whole.

 

4. Sanctuary practices: 

• Cleaning: I'm finishing up a month of cleaning away the mold and mildew in my house, and this week I'll work on our bedroom and my study, cleaning the mildew from the walls and windows with detergent and warm water, then use a solution of Borax, and don't rinse, to help prevent mold from growing again.
  
• Farming: I've re-introduced ducks to our land, after a two month break (Welcome home Permelia, and our new Swedish duck, Anka!) The practice of opening the coop at dawn, feeding, cleaning, and putting them to bed again at dusk feels like a healing connection to the land.
• Team talk: Last year I began a practice of printing out a daily page of garden inspiration and the day's list of garden tasks, putting it on a clipboard and finding a few minutes in the morning to discuss them with my partner. It was helpful for us both to have a discipline of talking and listening to each other (you'd think after almost 50 years together we'd have that down, but no) and the visuals gave us a starting place for musing about possibilities. I need to institute this practice again!
• Grandson projects: I want to include my grandson more often in cleaning, gardening, cooking, and farm work. This week I'll pick one task to engage him in each day he's with us.

Plow Monday

Plow Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany, is the traditional day in Europe for farmers to restart their farm work. 

Our garden isn't large, but I think of it as my miniature farm. Normally, it's too wet at this time in the Pacific Northwest to do any digging, but many other tasks are possible, and it's good motivation for me to have this set date each year to start my “farm work”.

I got a lot of good permaculture information from Amy of the Ten-Acre Farm.  Amy says,

"January is one of my favorite times of year because I love the opportunity to start anew, make new agreements with myself about how I will spend time in the garden, and determine what kinds of experiments I will run to continue learning and improving."

 

Agenda for today & this week: 

1. Journal query

2. Tool blessing ceremony

3. January harvest

4. Garden planing

5. Daily garden visits

6. Make plough pudding

New Year's Eve

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

Agenda today:

1. Christmas retreat

2. Kwanzaa principles

3. Celebration reading

4. Celebration and synergy goals for 2023

5. Prayer candle ceremony

6. Resolutions

7. Make noise!

5th Day of Christmas

This is the fifth day of the twelve-day festal tide - a sacred, festive season. I have a day to myself, but lots of activity on my schedule, so I plan to be present in the moment and take it one thing at a time.

Agenda today:

1. Christmas retreat

2. Kwanzaa principles

3. Sanctuary Reading

4. Sanctuary goals for 2023

5. Prayer candle ceremony

6. Turn my compost

1. Christmas retreat:

I am again celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas with a mini-retreat for myself, and using the Soyal Way of Being as a guide for my days; that is, I'm keeping Mother Earth in my thoughts as I move quietly and respectfully about my days, in order to establish the right mood for the coming year, and reach a unity of everything in the universe. 

I'm also doing some reading and writing every day, focusing on my priorities and what I'm called to do (or not do) next in my life. My plan is to contemplate, honor, and practice a different one of my life priorities on each of the 12 days, and set some goals and resolutions for 2023, based on guidance from God.

Today I am contemplating the sanctuary of my home, and balance at the center. My home (in a perfect world) is the calm center of the storm. Our home is cozy and fairly clean and tidy, but it has room for improvement: Our peace is upset by cluttered storage spaces and a few too many sharp words. I want to consider how to improve both my home space and my mental state.

What rooms and outdoor spaces in our home and garden need the most work to become a true sanctuary? How can I put my creativity into form to serve my sanctuary? How can I  better welcome the natural world to enter my sanctuary?

 

What physical clutter am I more than ready to let go of? What clutter am I clinging to? How do I balance simplicity and order in my home with abundance and creativity?

 

How grounded do I feel? Am I able to set aside obsessions and fears, and return to equanimity?

Am I balanced in the gestalt? Consider all the aspects of my life, all at once... Take a deep breath and listen deeply: What could I do next year to bring my life into greater balance?

2. Kwanzaa principles:

The fourth day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to the principle of ujamaa (oo-JAH-maah), cooperative economics - the idea that when we work together, we all profit. Cooperative economics encourages us to meet our common needs by chipping in together. Imagine a world where everyone shares their wealth (even our government) and uses our economic strengths to make the world a better place!

3. Sanctuary reading:

Today I'm reading again from "Root and Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self," by Becca Piastrelli (2021). Today I'm reading from Chapter 3  - Making a Sacred Home.

Becca says, "No matter where you live, your home sits upon land, upon earth.  ... It can be a challenge to remember the earth element within our homes. We forget that we can bring it into our spaces, that we can tend to it around our homes, and that we can honor it always."

She goes on to describe how to think of your home and land as kin, as a place with a soul of its own, and to "clean it with joy and infuse it with intention"; how to sit with the soul of your home and listen to what it wants.

4. Sanctuary goals for 2023:

This week I'm setting goals and resolutions for the New Year. My theme for today is Sanctuary and Balance; the "earthen courtyard" where chi is always available, where energy is replenished and then moves on. 

A sanctuary is a sanctum, a sacred and protected place of beauty, grace and refuge; it embraces us and brings us back to center. When we take sanctuary, even for brief moments, we are re-created, recharged, healed, soothed, comforted and at peace.

My home and land is a sanctuary for my body and my soul. My life flows around this solid base. Sanctuary goals might have to do with physically making my home a safe and comfortable space, making changes in my behaviors to create a greater feeling of safety for others, and also things like grounded-ness, and finding clarity in chaos.

My ideas so far for sanctuary goals next year:

• Continue to recycle possessions I no longer need, especially art supplies; plan some art projects to use my fabric stockpile, and papers. Find the balance of simplicity and abundance that I want.
• Renew my connection to my home by tending to it with intention and care.
• Continue the work of creating a sanctuary in our yard, for playing with grandchildren, gathering with family, socializing with friends, and for our domestic animals and wild nature; create an abundant veggie garden and and an inviting butterfly garden.
• Work on the skills of patience, equanimity, and loving kindness.
• Fill our home and yard with Medicine Art, to connect us to nature and to heal us.

5. Prayer Candle ceremony:

I'm enjoying a daily prayer candle ceremony throughout my extended Christmas retreat, using small candles and candle ends, and will choose a new candle to add each day.

Today I light a gold candle for sanctuary, and ask the Spirits to bring the rain of loving care down upon the whole world.

6. Turn my compost:

As a ceremonial way to honor sanctuary today, I plan to transfer the half-done compost in my large spinning composter into our smaller Darth Vader composter, where it will sit for the rest of winter. (I do this whenever the larger bin gets too full for me to spin.)

Composting - growing better soil - is one way we heal the earth. And it can also be a meditation: As I shovel out the half-finished compost, I add my thoughts to the mix - love, patience, peace - all the beneficial nutrients. I add in my thoughts of anger or remorse as well, and ask the earth to recycle them into something useful.

The Light Within

I've been reading Thomas R. Kelly's book "Testament of Devotion" (1941). I've had to translate the antique language: The relentless torrent of God defined as "He, Him, Father, Lord, and King" is daunting and difficult, but when I labor to get underneath that, it's a sweet little book.

The first chapter is The Light Within: "Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return." 

Kelly urges an internal practice and secret habits of the mind that allow you to be perpetually bowed in worship while going about your days, always reacting to the world joyously from this inward center.

Sanctuary and Adventure

A sanctuary is a place of welcome, safety, and refuge, particularly for anyone who is in danger, or is a target of hate, due to immigration status or any other difference. The word sanctuary comes from the Latin sanctuarium - "a sacred place or shrine". I create sanctuary for oppressed people by challenging hate in my community, and by rooting out biases in my own thinking.

But we all need sanctuary. I hope to create that kind of space in my home for myself, my family, and friends; and also a safe place for birds and wildlife who visit us.

A sanctuary is a base from which to venture forth into the world and seek one's way. Venture is a shortening of the word adventure, which comes from the Latin adventura  - "a thing about to happen". Every day brings a new adventure!

Agenda:

1. Read "Repacking Your Bags"

2. Creating sanctuary (plans)

3. Having adventure (plans)

4. Our huge garden project update

February Sanctuary

A sanctuary is a sanctum, a sacred and protected place of beauty, grace and refuge. Our home and garden is a sanctuary for body and soul; it embraces us and brings us back to center. When we take sanctuary, even for brief moments, we are re-created, recharged, healed, soothed, comforted and at peace.

This week I hope to continue to define and upgrade our sanctum; it's an ongoing discipline of inner work (seeking inspiration, and upgrading my habits) and projects (creating a place of peace that expresses who we are) .

Agenda:

1. Journal queries on home and family

2. House of Belief

3. Home simplicity

4. Our huge garden project

5. Teamwork and mental health

House of Belief

Today I'm giving extra attention to my house and garden. I want this to be the year that I complete a cycle of care that starts like this:

• 
  January: Clean mold, paint the windows, plan and tidy the garden.
• February: Clear excess stuff from each room, start seeds and prepare beds.
• March: Spring cleaning, wash windows, early planting

And I also want to better express our family ideas and beliefs in my house and garden, with creativity and thoughtfulness.

Agenda:

1. House of Belief plan

2. Sanctuary intentions

3. Spirit of Winter meditation

4. House cleaning in the bathroom

Fourth Day of Christmas

This is the fourth day of Christmas and the third day of Kwanzaa. Today I will enjoy the peace of a day at home with my hubby, doing home projects and sewing, and maybe venture out into the snow for a short walk. Being a retired person is sometimes pretty sweet!

Agenda today:
1. Kwanzaa principles

2. Christmas retreat

3. Sanctuary Reading

4. Sanctuary goals for 2021

5. House of Belief