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

Full Strawberry Moon

Tonight is the full moon called anishnalya, the "camas ripe" moon by the Kalapuya of our area, and the Strawberry Moon by others. This is a highly yang time of movement and strength, the season of completion and fulfillment. I have hope that I will reach my full flowering, begin to enjoy the fruits of my visions, and relax in the richness of success.

Agenda:

1. Take a vision walk

2. Celebrate abundance

3. Gratitude practice

June Sabbath for Abundance

Today is my sabbath. I've had a week of abundant cleaning, active play, and fruitful meetings, and I'm ready to settle into a sabbath frame of mind. My sabbath might be on Saturday or on Sunday, or part of both days. My perfect sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I do not rush, complain, or worry. 

Keeping a sabbath day is a personal thing. For me, it's a day with a slow pace, and 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. All day abundance meditation

2. My Earth-Quaker path

3. Earth Walking

4. Creativity practice

June First Quarter Moon

At 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 June quarter moon's energy to help me find a balance of simplicity and abundance - I am embracing the paradox of the expansive, free, effortless fullness, and rich, complex, and vital plainness that is summer. 

Agenda:
1. Journal queries

2. Read "Repacking Your Bags"

3. Make a full effort plan

4. Write a mission haiku

5. Practice visualization

June Abundance

June is a transition month - the end of spring and the beginning of summer. June’s element is fire, which purifies and gives life. It’s a highly yang time of movement and power, the season of completion, abundance and fulfillment. I have hope in summer that I will reach the full flowering of my self and my dreams. 

June has a different pace, less scheduled though more active. It’s a time for fine-tuning, and for decisive action. June is when I like to energetically climb to the top of a hill, survey the landscape and climb down again, to put myself in context, evaluate my progress, see what I’ve accomplished since January, and make careful adjustments in my goals and priorities. 

My aim this month is to stand still and calm in the center while I am playing, cleaning, writing, socializing, teaching, digging in the garden, swimming, traveling, and painting.

"Only when there is stillness in movement can the spiritual rhythm appear which pervades heaven and earth." -- Taoist text

Agenda:

1. Journal queries

2. Read "Repacking Your Bags"

3. Ray of Sun Meditation

Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient Chinese celebration that always falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of the Chinese calendar - that's five days after the new Dragon moon of May or June. It’s the third largest festival in the Chinese calendar, and it’s considered to be the start of summer. 

On this day everyone watches the spectacular dragon boat races, with the paddlers moving their oars in one fluid motion while the drummer thumps out a rhythm. The races might have begun as a symbolic way to encourage the dragons to fight in heaven and bring rain, so farmers would have good crops. Today, the races are held everywhere from Rome to Seattle, and if you are near enough to see them - how wonderful!

The Chinese call this the Duan Wu Jie (pronounced Dwan woo-oo Jee-eh) or Highest Meridian Festival. A meridian is a high point, as in the sun at the solstice. The Chinese celebrate the solstice today, according to a lunar calendar, so it varies every year. Traditionally this day is dangerous and unhealthy because it’s so strongly yang, putting the forces of ying and yang out of balance.

2018 xiangbao sachets

Agenda:

1. A Chinese chant

2. Make a xiangbao sachet

3. Make zongzi (dumplings)

4. Throw zongzi in the water