The Heart's Call to Action

A Quiet Colorado Blue Sky Afternoon at the Stupa …

Don't apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It is a measure of your humanity and your maturity. It is a measure of your open heart, and as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal. That is what is happening as we see people honestly confronting the sorrows of our time. … You don't need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough. … The wave of the future is on the local level. … Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into e imagination. … We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts. Joanna Macy

In this time, we are being called to go deep within to the quiet place inside that knows the Truth and is called co-create a new world from that place of knowing. Let’s create a steady flow of traffic, co-creating with one another and that which Sources Life. Let’s LIVE! The Pivot 3-19-25

I begin where I began and where I ended last week’s Pivot. The deep dive I’ve been in, the explorations and listening I’ve engaged in, beginning to hone in on and bring clarity to my heart’s call, to what I cherish that is mine to do, to co-create right here at home. To what I can imagine and dream: healthy soil, healthy people, happy community in this sacred high alpine valley as more farmers and ranchers pivot from soil-depleting, dirt and dust creating practices to listening to the land and engaging in regenerative practices that over time will transform dirt to healthy, nutrient rich soil.

The vision has been stirring deep in me for some time, occasionally surfacing in conversation then all too quickly put aside for whatever seemed more important and doable at the time. I didn’t know where to begin. So, I didn’t. The dream seemed too daunting. So, I avoided stepping into the unknown.

But my time in the metaphorical kiva, the spaciousness in my life to explore inner and outer planes, along with this week’s heart-wrenching, heart-opening listening to those directly impacted by the chaos and discord (not to mention the devastation and destruction of lives in the war-torn world) has awakened me more deeply to the suffering not just of my fellow human Beings, but to the suffering of all Beings and, indeed, of the planetary Being herself. And to the need to be in action on behalf of all Life. NOW!

Feeling this sense of urgency, I asked, “what is mine to do?”. An answer came. Clear, concise, starting point guidance:

Ø  Listen to the land.

Ø  Honor the land.

Ø  Support strengthening community to protect and restore the land.

Ø  Trust. The land will show the way and will care for all Life.

Ø  Act. One step each day.

The guidance was affirmed yesterday as I sat quietly at the nearby Padmasambhava Stupa shortly after listening to a Montana farmer speak about the uncertainty she and her husband are navigating on their organic, regenerative wheat farm/cattle ranch with changes in federal policies and programs and cancellation of commitments adding to the uncertainty that is already the very nature of farming itself. Her story, echoed by that of a local rancher heard later in the day, reminded me of Macy’s call to local community, to local action. From the heart. Now.

As illusions of certainty continue to vanish, I’m deepening my connection to the certainty of that which sources Life. I’m listening to the land herself and to those who work with her daily, 24/7 to grow food.

I’m examining my food choices with an eye toward even greater support for the local farmers and ranchers on whose shoulders my health and well-being and that of my community depend. As our local food hub says, “you have three votes every day!” I’m voting local!

And I’m mitigating the personal impact of the world’s uncertainty by listening to and following the certainty of my heart. Trusting its lead to guide the next step. And the next.

… and the Ziggurat Nearby

From the Inside Out - Heart Speaks Its Knowing

Into the Kiva …

Don't apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It is a measure of your humanity and your maturity. It is a measure of your open heart, and as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal. That is what is happening as we see people honestly confronting the sorrows of our time. … You don't need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough. … The wave of the future is on the local level. … Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination.

We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts. Joanna Macy

My pen flowed across the journal page this cold morning as I settled in by the fire. A stream of ink forming words, thoughts, sentences from somewhere beyond my (so-called) rational mind, that part of me too long trained to ‘figure things out’ rather than to create, or rather co-create, with Source.

I was in the inside-out dance of a particular astrological event on this day before the Spring Equinox. For those curious, today Neptune, representing the inner, is conjunct the Sun, outer expression. Experimental Generative AI popped up in a quick search of what ‘the world’ has to say about such events, informing (tongue in cheek) me that the event marks “… a time when reality blurs and illusions thrive, encouraging intuition and exploration of fantasies.”

As I see it, that world has us all too focused on what we’re told is a reality outside of us, one that we are on this earth to simply navigate. That is the nature of the ‘power over’, domination paradigm that those who seek to control would have us believe in their idea that they know best. Oh, how the systems are designed to keep us ensnared! For, if we believe ‘navigation’ in their system is the Truth, we are caught in its prison, accepting its illusions, its crumbs of freedom, while complying with its ways. Going along to get along.

I do this. You do this. We all do this to some degree because we exist in the system. I use exist deliberately because I believe (and the ‘voice’ which spoke through the pen early this morning seemed to affirm) that this is not the purpose of LIFE. It is not the Truth of who we are, of our interconnectedness with one another and with ALL that is.

What came in the early hours by the fire is not new to me (or to you, if you’ve been with me for a while).

Life is not the busyness of the world! That is why there is such deep anger against systems and the current administration in the (not so) United States as well as corporations, etc. They do not affirm Life.

The choice is not good versus evil. It is Life vs. not life. Reverse evil to LIVE.

Choosing Life is aligning with that which Sources Life, knowing that Life is infinite and that you are a sovereign Being. Life is Living from this knowing, choosing from this knowing, speaking from this knowing. And this can be a lonely road.

It is both a solo journey and, as Joanna Macy suggests, a co-creation with a community of others, each from our inner foundation, our heart. We need a traffic jam on this road of Life, a tipping point that has us deeply know the Truth of our connection with all Life, a Truth that the heart knows. Indeed, a Truth that is buried in our cellular memory across many lifetimes. In this time, we are being called to go deep within to the quiet place inside that knows the Truth and is called co-create a new world from that place of knowing.

Let’s create a steady flow of traffic, co-creating with one another and that which Sources Life. Let’s LIVE!

Into the Kiva II

A Freedom Stream

Flow Like the River - Roaring Fork River - Carbondale, Colorado

This aloneness is worth more than a thousand lives. This freedom is worth more than all the lands on earth. To be one with the truth for just one moment, is worth more than the world and life itself. Rumi

The Gaelic word ‘saoirse’ means freedom – and it’s freedom of a particular type. Saoirse is the freedom to be and to express yourself, the freedom to think and believe what you like; it’s freedom of the spirit and the imagination. Saoirse and ‘aimsir’ – time – are, I believe, the two most valuable things a person can possess. … Both money and institutions are used to strip people of their freedom, and, if they take your mind, they’ve taken everything. Diana Beresford-Kroger, To Speak for the Trees: My Life’s Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest

Sadly, I don’t know much about my Celtic roots, although my grandfather’s last name, Downing, suggests their presence. I wonder what he knew of his ancient roots, as they were never shared around a family gathering table. And yet, based on a keen interest in Celtic practices listening to and honoring the land, I sense my cells ‘know’ something that I have yet to consciously access.

In sharing a particular story about her journey and her work, Beresford-Kroger’s words touched and have been present with me since reading it several days ago. As I reflected on the story and the wisdom that emerged on her path, I saw it woven with Rumi’s ancient wisdom about the nature of freedom itself. And that led to this week’s stream of reflection about the times we’re walking through.

“When we lose our way, we strike out.” These words come as I think about bearing witness to divisiveness, fear, and the expressions that follow in this time. When we lose our way, when we lose our connection, our conscious awareness to that which sources Life. We seek to control and conquer. We create ‘theys’, others, to blame, shame, punish and, at the worst, attempt to eliminate.

As I write this, I’m aware that my words too create ‘theys’, others who in my thinking have lost their way, awareness of their precious connection to Source. As you read, perhaps you’ll see or sense the conundrum too. It seems that the Truth of Oneness is at odds with the ways of our world. Because it is!

Such reflections are not new to my thinking and writing these weekly posts. And, by no means are they breaking new ground. No matter the name, the Truth of Oneness, unity consciousness, inter-being, interconnectedness is a Truth known throughout the ages and passed down in many wisdom forms. It is the essence of our journey as Spiritual Beings expressing ourselves (our cells) in physical bodies, our human experience, our walk on the Earth.

This is the essence of our challenge in this pivotal time: to walk this earth in the Truth of our connection to Source while navigating systems that deny the Truth. It is the opportunity of our time as we move fully into the Age of Aquarius (Yes! That’s a real thing!!), in a dance with Mother Earth and the cosmos. An opportunity that invites us to co-create with Source new systems, structures, communities, and relationships that are guided by, aligned with, and sourced from that which Sources Life. A knowing that this Source is the source of all we strive for – peace, abundance, security, love, and, yes, freedom. The very freedom of which Rumi and Beresford-Kroeger speak.

While governments, institutions, others may attempt to stamp out freedom, they are not the Source of true freedom, the freedom of the Soul to follow its path guided by its keep knowing and abiding in Source. We are free whether we claim it and walk it or not.

Be Deeply Rooted, Stand Tall, Touch the Sky

Spring Snow & Seeking to Understand

Blessed Spring Snow in the Woods Out Back

Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Stephen R. Covey

Ah, Joy! Yesterday morning I woke up to a beautiful four plus inches of wet spring snow, an invitation to sit by the wood stove’s warmth and engage in a favorite activity: inner reflection and (hopefully) deep thought. Sometimes I think that had I been introduced to philosophy much earlier in my college studies, I might have chosen that as my career path. But I digress from what seems to want to be shared this 600th blog day. (Yep, another milestone on the weekly blog journey.)

One morning last week as I opened a friend’s car door to plop my ‘go to the hot springs’ gear in the backseat, a book on the seat grabbed my attention. Without seeing the full title, I knew I was meant to read it, and I asked my friend about it. “Oh, I’m taking it to the used bookstore. I decided not to read it because …” and she invited me to take it with me. Still not knowing why I was meant to read it, I accepted. At the very least, I was curious how the author would weave energy and consciousness into the political realm.

As I began reading a few days later I asked mySelf and Spirit, why? An answer came quickly: You must look into the darkness in order to know the light, a response that I didn’t experience as fully satisfying, as it seemed a bit too simplistic and empty of meaning.

More and more I aim to be mindful and purposeful of where I put my attention and to ask is this aligned with what I care about, with what I need to know, with what I am here to do, and who I am here to BE? Will this contribute to my living more fully aligned with the Truth of Oneness?

As I asked those questions, I sensed that reading would offer information that would support me to come to a better understanding of the current political landscape in the (not so) United States. More specifically, I’m curious about those with whom I’m not politically aligned. What information, world views, etc. do they hold that leads them to the conclusions and choices they make? What are their sources (beyond mainstream media yapping)? Sadly, my own ability and willingness has been lacking as have opportunities to engage in conversations with those at the other end of the political spectrum.

And so, I dove in, seeking to understand, curious about how the information would land, and how it would impact me. Would it make me nauseous or angry? Would it open to me to new possibilities for interpreting and understanding our world? Would it move me to greater understanding and compassion for those with whom I disagree. Would it open me to more deeply look at the dark aspects of history and current events and to remember that, just like you and me, so-called leaders throughout history and today are spiritual beings walking in the experience of being in a human body? Not an easy walk by any means.

In some sense, the book did all of that. Perhaps most importantly, it expanded my willingness and commitment to question the interpretations of others and to listen to those with whom I disagree rather than relying on the interpretations of others, even those with whom I agree and those I trust. In so doing, I feel a sense of taking a big step toward reclaiming my personal power and sovereignty. And with that, a sense of freedom that supports living in Oneness.

My prayer is that I do not seek to understand for the sake of justifying or convincing my ‘small s’ self or, indeed anyone, of what is right or wrong. Rather, that I seek to understand so that I may communicate with others on behalf of all Life and contribute toward building a world that embraces and works for all.

Snow Grass

From What Is to What Can Be

Lichen Heart in the Woods Out Back

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is the residence of true power.

Power, love, truth, harmony, curiosity and more have been ever present in my dance with Life this week. Opening Hafiz book of poetry The Gift last night, this message landed in my heart and travelled with me in the realms of deep sleep.

Why Aren’t We Screaming Drunks?

Hafiz 

The sun once glimpsed God’s true nature

And has never been the same.

Thus that radiant sphere

Constantly pours its energy

Upon this earth

As does He* from behind

The Veil.

With a wonderful God like that

Why isn’t everyone a screaming drunk?

Hafiz’s guess is this:

Any thought that you are better or less

Than another man**

Quickly

Breaks the wine

Glass. 

*or she; **or woman or other being in any form

Hafiz words of warning about the dangers of comparison rang deeply true, having earlier ‘received’ a message that bubbled from within: “You must get beyond this patriarchal paradigm of right/wrong, power over thinking and choosing in order to call forth and co-create the new and ancient paradigm of care – the rebirth and restoration of matriarchal ways of being and doing.”

The message, not new, resonated with me in some new way, like an old fire being rekindled. The Truth of Oneness feels alive within me in this time of so much dissonance around the world.

I felt this Truth on an early morning walk, as I was deeply aware of the harmony IN Nature and present to my long-standing desire to live my life in harmony WITH Her. I see this Truth in the seeming small acts of kindness and care in community, choices that loom large in pointing the way forward and co-creating what can be. I see it in the ways of Nature – mothers birthing, feeding, caring, teaching their young. Families of elephants, flocks of birds, schools of fish. Families of trees and plants in the forest and grasses on the plains.

Individually and collectively, the natural world is a teacher and guide for how Life is designed to be on this small blue marble we call home. Gaia. Mother Earth. The power of love abounds in Her beings. I see it in the heart rocks I observe as I walk this territory I call home. Just this morning I saw it in the prints of deer hooves and the pattern of lichen growing on a rock. Clear guidance from our Mother to love.

Somewhere, somehow along our evolutionary path we humans turned away from this natural harmony of our planet’s design. We chose a path of ‘power over’, of violence and war, of win/loose, of control rather than paths of co-creation, collaboration, care. We dared think some are better than others; and that we are at the top. We’ve exploited Gaia’s gifts and one another in unsustainable ways that can no longer stand. We broke the wine glass.

Admirable, well-intentioned efforts to legislate care for humanity and the planetary being into a system of power over have had limited success at best. Sadly, such ideas have become mere pawns in the game, and, as we witness today, are being used to further divide us.

Our evolutionary call is not for more funding, more programs, more crumbs from the ‘power over’ table. Our evolutionary call is for a change of heart, a collective shift in consciousness where the ways of control and power over have no fuel to continue. It is time to go beyond what is and to attend to what can be, to leap to love and co-creation of a new world from the ways of love.

Just as Nature does each and every day. She’s waiting, though not so patiently these days.

Love is the residence of true power. Let’s abandon the noise of the world and listen to our hearts, trusting and following where they lead. Let’s break no more wine glasses. Rather let us sip the rich nectar of Nature’s harmony and follow Her lead.

Hoof Prints of Deer on the Morning Path

Who Will We Be?

A Friend in the Woods Out Back

I’m dancing and swimming in this question of who I will be in this time, this evolutionary blip in the cosmic timeline of all Life. Here’s what came this morning as I put pen to the blank page of my journal:

This morning I rose

mind swirling.

Curiosity.

Flurry of words

not white snowflakes I so long for.

What is needed now?

LOVE

Compassion

Wisdom

Patience, Care

Courage

Simple acts of creation.

Calling forth understanding not from mind and intellect

struggling to make sense of

what we are witness to and a part of

in this fragile, crumbling world

as one age gives rise to another.

Calling forth understanding from the Heart,

the depth and soul of our Being that knows the Truth

no matter what.

Not truth as accurate fact.

This fact or that in order to be ‘right’

and thus, declare the other

‘wrong’.

But Truth as sacred righteousness.

The Knowing held deep inside of us

Now Being called forth to make order from the chaos.

To commune and co-create.

To practice reverence as we regenerate

soil and self.

To fuel our evolutionary leap.

Not in the systems of the old.

But in the ways of the new and ancient wisdom

calling us forth.

Compassion, the word, the feeling courses through my being as I think about the choice point of this moment. Will we navigate this time as one only of crisis and destruction, attempting to forestall inevitable evolution, making choices from our old ways of being and choosing? Will we cling to the way it’s been, the patriarchal system, feeding it our fear through compliance, the very fuel that it needs to survive?

Or will we bravely sever the cords of dependence, embracing the evolutionary moment, stepping into a world view, however vague and foggy it is for us? Will we call on our new and ancient knowing to support the emergence of something new? Will we be the fertile soil from which seeds planted long ago sprout? Will we nourish ourselves so we can nurture and tend this new garden?

Who will I be in this sacred time? Who will we be?

Tree Art Heart

Heartfelt Resistance

The Blessing of Morning Mountain Snow

Since last week’s post on embracing the mystery, resistance has been top of mind and heart. As my day has began to unfold and attention placed on what to share, I peeked within at my own resistance to change while holding a heartfelt desire for change within and change without. That, I suppose, is the nature of paradox and of life in this chaotic time. It is my personal experience these days.

In this time while we each walk our individual walks, it is important to remember that every thought, word and deed ripples into the collective. Robert Kennedy, an early political hero of mine, whose assassination I watched unfold in the summer of 1968, said it well.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Robert Kennedy

May I be ripple for love in the world. Love of humanity. Love of all beings on the planet. Love of the cosmos. Love of Life.

There is an aspect of trauma in which we are all intertwined, whether with awareness or not. Whether in this lifetime or accumulated from our past. I find myself in this soup today with a desire to know, to learn, to release and heal. For me, this inner exploration is an act of resistance, as it is sourced in curiosity and love and counters the fear mongering that I observe as I look out at the chaotic landscape.

At the same time, our times invite us to action in that landscape. To nonviolently resist the oppression we witness around the globe and right here at home in the United States. To co-create a new landscape in community with others that is fair, just, regenerative, and honoring of all Life. If, like me, you find the ways of the world’s systems today, not reflective of the world you want, then I invite you to explore avenues of resistance and change.

I find inspiration and ideas for resistance in Nonviolence News, edited my dear friend and author Rivera Sun. Her prescient series beginning with The Dandelion Insurrection is a worthy read for inspiration and hope. She weaves a story of resistance to what is with the co-creation of what can be, a tapestry for all Life.

In future Pivots, I’m aiming to share resources and discoveries in the domains of new systems of finance, community building, regenerative agriculture, and more, as this is where my heartfelt resistance seems to be calling me.

Meanwhile, it is (at least for me) helpful to remember that we are in the crucible of a new age, only a blip in what we call time as far as the cosmos is concerned. Even our home, dear Gaia, has been through such epochal changes before. And, likely, so have we.

For me personally, astrology supports me to navigate this time from a different perspective. I’ve long followed cycles of the moon and observed their impact on me. Today’s Full Moon is no different, and offers an opportunity to look at current events from a broader lens. Dr. Michael Lennox says it well about this day and this time.

We have entered the Age of Aquarius, leaving the unconscious Age of Pisces behind us. The forces that were able to forge a patriarchal world two thousand years ago are evolving out of existence. Aquarius is generating the next two-thousand-year Age, one in which Peace for Humanity reins, and all human beings are cared for. What we are experiencing now, especially in the United States, is an extinction grab. The masculine principle, terrified of its perceived demise, is generating a powerful explosion of effort to keep the old ways intact. But the old ways are already dead, and we must bridge the gap between the old world and the new. And we do that by each of us reaching for personal excellence (Leo), and sharing what we create with the world that needs what we have to offer (Aquarius).  Dr. Michael Lennox

Discovering a new world view is another act of resistance. Let’s explore!

Mountain Morning Snow

Embracing the Mystery

Snow at Last!

There is one sin I have come to fear above all others. Certainty. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And, therefore, no need for faith. Cardinal Lawrence (character in the movie Conclave)

In reality, life does not often conform to our wish for certainty, and there are few examples in the natural world of things staying certain, fixed, knowable, stable, definitive or enduring. Ambiguity and ambivalence are more natural states of being that no one wants to talk about with most things moving in and out of balance and flux every second of the day. Our bodies are constantly seeking adjustment, the planet is constantly cycling through stages of creation and decay, and even our human-made empires come and go … In a world full of transition, flux and fluidity, the logic of pinning things down and conquering is to bring order and sanity. … To want to compartmentalise, categorise, objectify and organise isn’t surprising or pathological, but the to the extent that it seeks to obliterate grey areas, transitional states, contingency, ambiguity and ambivalence, it is troublesome. Life shows no fixity in service to our anxieties … Ruth Allen (Weathering: How the earth’s deep wisdom can help us endure life’s storms)

Like the vibrant life underground awaiting the signal of warmth to emerge, I began to stir a bit more as we passed the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and March’s Spring Equinox. Yet, silence and stillness, quiet walks in the woods beckon as does the dark, starry sky on cold, clear nights and before dawn breaks.

I’m present to a deep need to be grounded in this chaotic and uncertain time. At the same time, I remember that this time and its events, like every other before, are a tiny blip in the evolution of the cosmos. And that we are at choice in how we evolve.

And yet, this is the time we are in, the time we are navigating. A time where deep polarization asks that we choose which side is ‘right’ and make other binary (yes/no, this/that, good/bad, boy/girl, black/white) choices. While reading Allen’s Weathering (a grounding read in itself!), I began to think about how our quest for certainty leads us to make such choices, and how in doing so we limit the palate of possibilities open to us for creating our shared future.

I’m present to my own uncertainty about what and how to write as well as overall uncertainty about how to navigate what is unfolding. Like many others, I feel a sense of angst and unease. Sometimes even the feeling of powerlessness creeps in.

At the same, I believe that how and what each of us thinking and choosing moment to moment is influencing what and how we evolve. When I remember that, I can ask with an open heart, what is mine to do today? What do I need to know today? How do I need to BE today? Aiming each day to embrace this time as mystery, perhaps ‘The Great Mystery’, and to imagine the emergence of a peaceful world that works for all.

Embracing life as mystery, not be solved, but to be lived in harmony with all Life indeed requires faith and great care in where our faith is placed. And perhaps that’s a Pivot for another day.

The Melt … the snow didn’t last

In the Silence

Old, Mighty Pine

Yes. Silence. Again. Still.

Just five weeks into winter and in mild, almost spring-like weather, I continue to be drawn to winter’s ways. Slow movement. No movement. Rest. Quiet. Reading. Sauntering. Thinking and inviting my thoughts to silence. Reflecting. Observing. Wondering …

Today I’m drawn back to David Whyte’s poem, The Winter of Listening, and especially to his commentary about it. … A time when to name anything would be to give it the wrong name, most especially refusing to name ourselves, a radical sense of letting ourselves alone, without even the most subtle, internal self-bullying or coercion…

As I read the poem again, I’m drawn to these verses …

All this petty worry

while the great cloak

of the sky grows dark

and intense

round every living thing.

What is precious

inside us does not

care to be known

by the mind

in ways that diminish

its presence.

What we strive for

in perfection

is not what turns us

into the lit angel

we desire,

what disturbs

and then nourishes

has everything

we need. (excerpt from The Winter of Listening in David Whyte: Essentials)

My worry – or is it ‘worry’ or something to which ascribing another name may be more true? Concern? Care? Grievance that wants to be grieved? Despair? Denial? I chuckle as I attempt to name something that doesn’t want to be named, thinking that naming is a way of understanding and putting this puzzle piece in its right place.

I’m present to my subtle self-coercion to maintain consistency, remembering that I do love this process, even when I struggle with getting to what wants to be said. Even when events seem beyond my comprehension. That too is worthy of my awareness. Perhaps some things are meant to live beyond our comprehension, merely inviting us to accept that they are what they are (whether we like them, and especially when we don’t). Winter’s ways nourish that.

Then, after our listening within, we know how and when to act. And, nourished, we are able to follow that guidance.

Today marks the first new moon of 2025, a good time to review intentions and to set new ones. What to I intend in this time? Today is also the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Wood Snake, which in 2025 represents wisdom, transformation, and personal growth, with the Wood element adding flexibility and renewal. It is also said that the year emphasizes shedding negativity and embracing change. What do I need to shed? What changes long to be embraced as intention and acted upon? The Wood Snake is associated with intelligence, perseverance, and strategy, making 2025 a year of significant opportunities.

In the silence, let us weave and tap into that!

The Ziggurat on a Colorado BlueSky Day

Pivot to Silence

Clouds and Sun on a Winter Day

Last evening as I was moving toward dreamtime, I was drawn to David Whyte’s poem, The Winter of Listening, about which Whyte says, within this poem is an ancient intuitive understanding of winter as a time to leave things alone, to let things remain hidden, even to themselves. … It is the intimate experience sitting alone by a fire, in silence and reverie, with both a simplification and a growing clairvoyance of what is just beginning to be made known. Of course, his words resonated deeply with my love of winter and longing to align with the rhythms of Nature.

This morning, I woke with the heaviness of worry, a sense of despair (about which Whyte thoughtfully and eloquently explores in Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and Meaning of Everyday Words). As I sat with, vocalized, and allowed despair to move in and through me, I realized that this blog day finds me with no words, no inspiration, no wisdom for how we each navigate this time. That this day is calling me into silence, into winter’s listening. And so, this day, I share a bit of Whyte’s poem and another poem from a poet who I discovered, quite magically, on the Winter Solstice. Then I’ll return to the silence by the fire and in the woods out back.

All those years

forgetting

how easily

you can belong

to everything

 simply by listening.

And the slow

difficulty

of remembering

how everything

is born from

an opposite

and miraculous

otherness.

Silence and winter

have led me to that

otherness.

So let this winter

of listening

be enough

for all the new life

I must call my own.

(excerpt from The Winter of Listening - David Whyte)

What the Silence Says – Marie Howe (from Magdalene poems – 2017)

I know that you think you already know but –

Wait

Longer than that.

even longer than that.

An Afternoon Walk in the Woods with Clouds, Blue Sky, Sun, and Snow