A Natural Christmas

My theme for this week of Advent has been "cherish and care for the earth". Each year about now I bring nature indoors, by collecting greens, pine cones, straw, and other natural materials to use for decorations, and for making gifts. 

Greens are the first decorations I put up around the house, along with a few candles, to open the door to a little light, and to connect with the earth.

Agenda:

1. Make golden pine cone decorations

2. Tree cookie ornaments (tips for painting with toddlers)

3. Deck the halls

New White Moon

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. This season puts limits on our lives. Chinese philosophy says the winter season 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. This is the darkest night of the month: 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.

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.

Agenda Today:

1. New moon journal brainstorm

2. Prayer for the Light

3. Pick a theme

4. Goals and intentions

5. New moon altar and meditation

6. Creativity retreat

Advent Land Acknowledgement

My theme for this first week of Advent is to "Cherish and care for the earth", and I do that most often with my own little patch of earth: I garden organically, and create habitat for native plants, insects, and birds. I honor the seasons. I live as sustainably as possible, and I work against climate change.

I've thought a lot about this valley, it's history, and what brought my family here. My nuclear family's heritage is English, French, Dutch, German, Swiss, Norwegian, and Slavic. Some of my family came to North America with the first pilgrim ships. We moved west steadily, and came to Oregon as early as 1888. My mother's family were mostly farmers and loggers here in the Willamette Valley, and my father's family settled further north.

My home is on the traditional land of the Kalapuya people, from whom it was forcibly taken. I need to know more about the indigenous people to whom this land rightly belongs, and find ways to offer reparations.

Agenda: 

1. Research the Kalapuya

2. Write an Indigenous land acknowledgement letter

3. Thank you letter

4. Pay rent

Advent Simplicity

My theme for this first week of Advent is to "Cherish and care for the earth". I aim to celebrate simply, and consume less, so that I have a gentle impact on the planet.

The modern way of observing the winter holidays supports an increase in waste; one statistic says that Americans throw away 25% more trash – an additional 5 million tons – between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. A fun holiday season doesn't have to be a wasteful one!

Agenda Today:
1. Journal queries
2. Make fabric bags
3. Bubblebath

Advent Earthcare

My theme for this first week of Advent is  

Exploring the Amazon, looking for birds.

"Cherish and care for the earth". I express my unity with nature at Advent in two main ways:

• by offering small gifts of love and attention in recognition of all I receive from the earth
• and by finding joy and fulfillment in simply being alive, instead of in an excess of buying, eating, using, and wasting.

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries
2. Work against climate change
3. Feed the birds
4. Make bird feeder pine cones

Advent Nativity Fast and Waning Crescent Moon

Advent is important to me, and I have many ideas to share. This first week of advent my theme is to "Cherish and care for the earth". A vegetarian diet is better over all for the planet, so this week I've started a Nativity Fast.

The Nativity Fast is the Orthodox Christian way to experience the waiting which is Advent. Instead of “pre-celebrating” Christmas, they have a 40-day period of fasting, beginning on November 15th (but I wait until AFTER Thanksgiving!)

Besides fasting, the practice includes also prayer, alms-giving, and love. 

And today's waning crescent moon is the final phase of the Kindly Moon cycle. The next new moon, in four days, will be the White Moon cycle. At the new moon I'll set my intentions for the month ahead. But right now, it's time to evaluate, brainstorm, and surrender. I'll open to curiosity and attention, contemplate what I might want in the 30 days ahead, and rest up for the move back into yang-action mode. These next few days are a chance to look back and look forward, and think about the big picture of my life.

Agenda Today:
1. Advent Prayer
2. Evaluation and Inspiration House

3. Mini-Nativity Fast
4. Make Revithia Soupa (Chickpea Soup)
5. Love

6. Alms-giving

7. Surrender, rest, recuperate