Trusting My Soul

Sun and Clouds — New Years Eve Morning

Self-compassion is paramount. When you are compassionate with yourself, you trust in your soul, which you let guide your life. Your soul knows the geography of your destiny better than you do. John O’Donohue (Interview by Mary NurrieStearns on https://personaltransformation.com/)

Trusting my soul. Ahhh … that feels so very rich, right, nourishing. Aligned with my highest aim. Shooting for the stars, not as a goal to accomplish, but to remember that I came from stardust (as did we all) and my soul knows the wisdom of this cosmic connection. The connection that maps the geography of my destiny.

How do I know when I’m trusting my soul? I wonder, and …

Compassion. I’ve been sitting with you, contemplating your nature for a bit. Compassion – ‘with passion’. Passion from the soul which feels, perhaps fills, the heart of my being.

So, compassion, you are of the heart, and that heart must throw off the shackles of numbness that hold illusions of protection.

Protection. From what? From whom? Being numb is no protection at all! Indeed, in my numbness I cannot see the world, another, or even myself and behold the beauty that is Life. And I cannot see the suffering, the pain, the degradation … Wake up!

To feel compassion is to care. Self-compassion is self-care. Daring to dwell deep in the heart and care for the heart of the matter. The matter of Life. All Life. Sacred Life.

These words, these thoughts seem jumbled as if they are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without a picture on the box to guide me. What pieces are missing?

What, if any, action flows from compassion? What is mine to do, to act upon? The question burns. Our culture demands action, doing. Surely it is not enough to simply feel the pain of another’s suffering. Or of Mother Earth being trampled and abused as a resource until we use her up. Or of callous killing in the guise of being secure.

But how will my soul answer?

What IS mine to do in ending these cycles of violence? What needs to awaken in me?

I shudder a bit, and, with a gulp, ask Muse, “Is this jumble what is to be shared today?”

“Trust your soul,” comes the reply, likely with a wink and, perhaps, a nod.

Soul suggests there is a bit more. In opening to deeper compassion and honesty about the world, I must not let that world drag me into its morass. Mine is to discover the geography of my destiny and then to trust the map. My map, drawn in communion with the cosmos, and present in my soul. Mine is to know that my, indeed our, greatest task is to BE above the fray, even when events bring that fray to our doorstep.

Beyond the world’s chaos my soul envisions the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. My task, soul seems to say, is to hold that vision in the darkest of times, especially for those who are suffering or in survival mode and those whose misery leads them to foment discord and more. To lift them up in my heart and see them, indeed all of us, IN that more beautiful world. To behold love as the standard by which humanity will thrive and to hold myself to that standard. The puzzle pieces begin to fall into place …

A Colorado Blue Sky Day!

Beannacht - A New Years Blessing

Snowy Peaks to End the Year

This first blog day of the new year finds me curious about the year ahead, what will unfold in me, for me, and what will unfold in our tumultuous world. I’m exploring within just what ‘reweaving wholeness’ (last week’s blog topic and the focus of 2024’s 7 Days of Rest) means personally and collectively in a world where so much is dissolving.

What will we face this year? How will we face it and who will we be as we do so?

Searching for a quote to launch the year, I found a beautiful John O’Donohue poem, Beannacht – A Blessing, written for his mother Josie. After reading and listening to O’Donohue read the short poem (you can find his reading here) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfvS2LYbZLQ I felt such resonance that I’m sharing it in lieu of writing a longer post.

As he so often does, O’Donohue expresses and calls forth awareness of a deep knowing in my heart. May our walk through all that 2024 brings be as graceful as his words.

Beannacht – A Blessing

 On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

 And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets in to you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green,
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

 When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

 May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

 And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

Crestone Peak

Weaving Wholeness into Life

There may be bumps and shadows in the road ahead …

… we seed the New Year with a global field of intention and healing, honoring our collective calling to wholeness. Each day we journey through primordial portals of remembrance, guiding our dreaming and becoming. (7 Days of Rest & Reweaving Wholeness - click here from info)

 As the clock ticks away the final 4 days, 12 hours, 50 minutes, 19 seconds of 2023 I find myself looking more forward than back. What will I weave into the fabric of this new cycle?

 I think of the elements in my Solstice prayer.

 – Oneness, discernment, compassion, deep listening, maturity, child-like wonder, peace – with curiosity and commitment to weave each into how I want through life in this cycle.

 As was the case at the end of 2022, many – perhaps most – await the turning of the clock to 2024 with bated breath, wishing to bid adieu to another tumultuous year. We want to turn the page. We long to dive deeply into the fresh start that began with the Solstice promise of our personal newness and culminates as we replace our 2023 calendars with new pages of promise and possibility that the coming year has the potential to bring forth.

 It is, as always, up to us – individually and collectively – to bring promise, possibility, and potential to fruition. What will we weave into life this year? How will we bring the diverse threads of the intrinsic nature and indispensable quality of ourselves fully into Life? How might our world be if we enter the new with that as our intention?

 As sure as the Sun’s light is returning day by day here in the northern hemisphere, we will have opportunities to do just that in the hours, days, weeks, and months ahead. What if we trusted the opportunities to come forth at just the right divine time rather than pushing to ‘make’ them happen?

 Although like 2022, this year held much tragedy and darkness, lights of love continued to shine in dark corners needing our attention and care.  May lights of love shine brightly on our weaving in all the days ahead. May we tap into the countless sources of light available beyond the chaos of the mainstream and its ways. May we receive whatever light we need as we add our unique rays to loving constellations of light and life and weave wholeness into the fabric of our lives – individually and collectively.

 While the onset of a new year signals the end of the holiday season in our culture, Winter has only just begun. The dark, the cold invites me inward (more snow would help the cause!). The season that began a mere seven days ago has a 12-week run before giving way to Spring. Yet our cultural habit is to greet the new year with our plans and to spring into action with goals and commitments to DO more as soon as the new year dawns.

 What if we took more time for rest and renewal as Nature does in the season of cold? What if we put our attention on nurturing our deep, true essence? What if we followed Nature’s lead, snuggling into ourselves to commune with the sacred and to gather all that is necessary to burst forth in Spring? While certainly there is life and livelihood to maintain, jobs to go to, businesses to tend, political action to be voiced, stories to be told, I wonder how the world might be if we began the calendar year in greater alignment with Nature? Mother Nature? Our Nature?

 In some way, I feel as if the new has already begun, with my curiosity and reflections focused forward not back to what is done. As I reflect on saying ‘Goodbye’ to the time gone by, my year end reflections include bundles of gratitude for what I’ve learned and discovered, how I’ve grown and changed. I experience these as subtle and internal shifts that have generated more smiles, more friendliness, more contentment and joy.

 What do you bring to your year-end reflections?

 As 2023 ends, many will breathe a sigh of relief that it is finally over along with a breath of hope for better days in the year ahead.  The world we live in is chaotic and uncertain. It IS! Those who put attention on that world forgetting that it is the world we live IN, NOT the world we are OF may look ahead with dread or fear.

 That need not be.

 Within each of us is a seed of understanding who we truly are. Nurturing that seed grows our faith in our capacity to be resilient in the face of the world’s chaos. This seed of faith is within us all. It is not faith in anything outside of us. Rather it is faith in who we are, each as an individual, integral part of an intelligent Universe. It is a reminder that life is so much more than we experience and observe in our daily routines. In this year ahead, may we each tap into our essence, our spiritual strength and weave it into the fabric of life.

 As you ring in 2024, I invite you to remember how important your presence and your ray of light is at this moment on the planet and to nourish your capacity to weave in each of the 365 days ahead by joining the global, online gathering 7 Days of Rest and Reweaving Wholeness, January 1-7.

 As they did at year end 2021 and 2022, the event’s introductory words draw me in with their reminder of the power of intention and clarity and the potent possibility that alignment and collective action call forth:

 7 Days of Rest, January 1-7, is an annual, open co-creative event dedicated to the healing and replenishment of the planet and all its inhabitants. All are invited to enjoy the rich array of offerings, including wisdom teachings, meditations, music, inspirations and more, that are generously offered by the global community. … we seed the New Year with a global field of intention and healing, honoring our collective calling to wholeness. Each day we journey through primordial portals of remembrance, guiding our dreaming and becoming. As we commune with these essences of Life, we remember our ancestral roots, our original untamed nature, and the ancient knowing of ourselves as infinitely diverse expressions of One Source. Together, we reweave our unique threads of light in integrity and harmony with the fabric of our living universe.

 The website is chock full of nourishing offerings each day. I’m looking forward to deep exploration of each of the daily themes. I hope that you’ll join me in whatever way best fits your essence, your schedule, your life, and your intentions for the year ahead.

 To Weaving Wholeness and Happiness in the New Year! 

Beauty Ahead!

My Solstice Prayer 2023

Snow!

The beauty of Winter Solstice is courage in itself. It is the courage to know that to be new is not necessarily going to be accepted by those expecting the commonplace. … a new you is ready … that will carry you through the new cycle. … Solstice is the time when you give up what you have and accept what is being born as the new power within you, the awareness within you, the new person within you. Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

As I ease into the quiet of Solstice Eve and Solstice Day, I begin to contemplate what of the old needs to fall away, and I start to imagine who might I be in this new cycle. As I sit in the early morning quiet, my prayer for this sacred day when Heaven and Nature sing in harmony and for the cycle ahead begins to emerge…

May I let go of whatever stories of separation remain a part of me so that I can live more fully into the truth of Oneness.

May my critical eye be only a tool for discernment, not judgements of others.

May I grow in my capacity to act from compassion, calling forth compassion first, releasing judgement and doubt, and recognizing where compassion is needed.

May I listen deeply to my heart, to others, to Nature, and to guidance from Spirit.

May I have the maturity to live in the kind of peaceful world that I desire.

May I let go of childish ways and embrace all life with child-like wonder.

May I know peace and may I BE peace in my walk through our chaotic world.

May you find moments of peace in the midst of the world’s noise and busyness to release the old and step into your creation of the new. I appreciate these wise words from Max Ehrmann, penned in 1927, which seems so relevant almost 100 years later (listen here).

Nestled in the Snow …

Easing into Solstice 2023

Deer in the Woods

All of heaven and all of earth coordinate at the Winter Solstice. Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

What I would exhort you to, what I would give as a gift to you, what I would lay down a soul for, would be for your awareness to recognize that this is a personal event for your life. It is the time that has been set up on this planet for you and Heaven to be with each other without interference. Gregge Tiffen (The Winter Solstice: Giving To Yourself – December, 2007)

With the daylight shortening as we move toward the Winter Solstice here in the northern hemisphere, the longer nights can seem to reflect the darkness of violence happening around the globe. It’s good to remember that our friends to the south are experiencing the longest light of their year. So it is with our awareness that as so much of humanity is expressing itself in dark ways, there is also much light, much love, much joy, and much hope for a brighter tomorrow.

It seems that we’ve drifted in our understanding of this season. …the time … for you and Heaven to be with each other without interference. Breathe that in for just a moment. Breathe a breath of gratitude for the gift. May we put our attention on the light and live in awareness of love as we pray for peace to break out all over the globe.

As I enter this Solstice time, I feel deeply blessed to not be engaged in much of the busyness that has come to define this holiday season. I’m grateful that on cold mornings with a warming fire in the woodstove I can look to the woods out back through the eyes of a heart that knows no separation from my tree relatives, from the rock beings, the winged ones, or from the four-legged creatures of all sizes that dwell or pass through this sacred place. My heart knows this as surely as it knows my oneness with the unseen Life that thrives here.

 I’m tuning in to the sacredness of this time, to the station of Nature’s beauty, and to the bubbling of old and new deep inside.  At the same time, I observe so much and so many in the world who are unable to do so.

Divisiveness and angst have intensified exponentially in recent years. So too have the opportunities for personal growth and evolution, individually and collectively. It is on those opportunities that I want to focus my attention this Solstice time.

One of the sources I turn to at Solstice is Gregge Tiffen’s writings about this sacred time. I find the message below a gentle reminder of the choices I can make moment to moment in all the days of winter solitude ahead and beyond this winter into the spring:

Prelude (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

There is nothing I can give you which you have not got; but there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take.

No Heaven can come to us, unless our hearts find rest in today.

Take Heaven

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take Peace

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see, and to see, we have only to look, I beseech you,

Look!

In the quiet there is tranquility. May your life move and radiate in that unity and your heart sing the hymn of peace to all mankind.

And so, at this time, I greet you not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with prayer that for now and forever the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

 In the Christmas Story, we are told that the inn was full. And, yet a receptive place for the birth was found. And so it is for each of us.

We too need to empty and make ourselves receptive to the new.  Solstice is a time to declare one cycle complete, making way for another to begin. It is a time to embrace the realm of spirit and turn our backs on the material world, if only for a brief time. It is a time to bless and release all who have crossed our path in this cycle, knowing that those who are meant to return will be there in the new one.

And, perhaps most important of all, it is time to let go of who we were in the cycle that is completing.  The ‘you’ of that cycle is complete as well. And a new you of your design and making awaits.

We need not wait for the day of Solstice to take Heaven, to take Peace, and to Look at the radiance in the darkness within and without. Let us take them now and allow the potency of this time to fill us. This is our time to empty. This is our time to embrace seeds of the new; to be receptive.

As our planet celebrates her birthday, my prayer is that I align with all my relations such that my comfort, my safety, my Life is not at their expense. This is my prayer for Solistice, for the year ahead, for Gaia, for Life. May this be our song of Joy to the World with ALL of Nature singing in harmony with one another and with the Heavens. Hallelujah!

Let us honor Mother Earth by taking time to reflect the gifts of the time when heaven and nature sing as one. May we each sing along in our own unique and harmonious way.

Icy Rio Grande River - Del Norte, Colorado

Maintaining Peace Within

Dragonfly in the Sand

In times of tragedy, what is the balance between bearing witness and self-preservation? Megan Lierley (in The Good Trade – December 5, 2023).

Mindful of how important it is to maintain a high frequency as I navigate life, especially in my interactions with others, a question rose in me as I rose into this day: How do I maintain peace within and broadcast love when I’ve observed or when I’m discussing a particular event around which I hold judgement?

In essence, the question is similar to the challenge I posed here a couple weeks back (click here to revisit My Thanksgiving Prayer): maintaining inner peace as we witness horrific events and the choices of others with whom we do not agree.

Pausing, taking a breath, engaging gratitude are strong practices to help meet the challenge. But ‘what else?’ I wondered as I built the morning fire to break the chill that crept into the house overnight.

I recalled a recent conversation when a friend shared that she finds herself fascinated by “the ways some people are choosing to express themselves these days.” Her comment reframed judgement and called forth curiosity, another path to peace within.

As I began to think about a focus for today’s Pivot my wondering shifted: ‘Is this what wants to be shared?’ Before beginning to write I popped online to check our local weather guy’s website and the day’s forecast and, uncharacteristically, scanned through my email inbox. A particular subject line, How to Mindfully Consume Difficult News, caught my eye.

Scanning through the article, I felt a sense of guidance and affirmation. Yes, this IS today’s Pivot. For indeed this IS a time for mindful choices, for care of self, for feeling what we feel while tapping into our heart’s knowing so that in our walk through the world, we maintain a sense of peace and project that peace into our chaotic world. While the article addresses primarily practices for staying informed through various news media, at its core, it’s about maintaining inner peace. You can read the article here.

How might our world pivot with more mindful choices about how we stay informed and how we communicate with others around the information we are discovering? How do we/I BE as witness events and choices which we find horrific and even those with which we simply disagree? Perhaps musing such questions can bring us to more mindful choices and support us to walk through the world more peacefully, broadcasting from the spectrum of love. And perhaps in our individual answers we strengthen our ability to restore and maintain peace within, for surely love and care rise from that place.

Snowy Peaks to the South

It's Take a Breath Wednesday!

Ziggurat and the Sacred Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Breathing has its own rhythm. Breath comes in ebb and flow. Through breathing you come into the rhythm with your self. The generosity of air allows each object to merge and to be. John O’Donohue

Today is (drumroll please!) ‘Take a Breath Wednesday’! Yeah, I know today’s post is a bit late in coming and you had no forewarning about the significance of this day, so heck, let’s make tomorrow ‘Take a Breath Thursday’. Or how about ‘Take a Breath Week’?

Here in the U.S., we’ve just completed a string of days that have been given names, the majority aimed at our consumer habits. After last Thursday’s Thanksgiving, we woke to ‘Black Friday’ (Thankfully, Muse restrains me from commentary about the name and what it’s become in our culture.) which others have tagged ‘Green Friday’ or ‘buy nothing Friday’, a day to be in Nature and avoid the consumer craziness. Following that ‘Small Business Saturday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’, and, lastly, ‘Giving Tuesday’.

Together Muse and I wonder why the Friday after Thanksgiving isn’t Giving Friday. But our priorities and our thinking are not especially aligned with the priorities of commerce. We value community and we value coherence, unity within and unity without. Or as John O’Donohue suggests coming into the rhythm with your self.

Your Self. Conscious breathing takes us to a place of awareness and a state of being where heart and brain can align. A state of being that brings us peace within, peace to support us in navigating this chaotic, heart-wrenching time in a world where peace may seem out of reach. When head and heart are aligned, we know the truth of our interconnectedness with one another and with all life. We open ourselves to experience the interconnectedness that erases the false boundaries of nations, skin color, language, religion, cultural practices, political views and all that is designed to divide us. All Life.

Breathe and you know that you are alive.
Breathe and you know that all is helping you.
Breathe and you know that you are the world.
Breathe and you know that the flower is breathing too.
Breathe for yourself and you breathe for the world.
Breathe in compassion and breathe out joy.
Breathe and be one with the air that you breathe.
Breathe and be one with the river that flows.
Breathe and be one with the earth you tread.
Breathe and be one with the fire that glows.
Breathe and you break the thought of birth and death.
Breathe and you see that impermanence is life.
Breathe for your joy to be steady and calm.
Breathe for your sorrow to flow away.
Breathe to renew every cell in your blood.
Breathe to renew the depths of consciousness.
Breathe and you dwell in the here and now.
Breathe and all you touch is new and real. – Thich Nhat Hanh

Take a good, deep breath and let’s make EVERYday a day to breathe in the truth of our humanity!

Full Moon in the Trees

My Thanksgiving Prayer 2023

Snow on the Peaks!

The power of giving thanks gives life its vitality! The power of giving thanks comes through your awareness that you are always in a position to receive all the elements the Universe has to offer. Everything is available to you.  Gregge Tiffen (The Power of Giving Thanks, November 2007)

 As I do most every morning, I felt grateful when I woke (being ‘woke’ seems a good thing!) this day before Thanksgiving here in the U.S. Accompanying Zadie Byrd outside at dawn, my gratitude deepened upon hearing two Great Horned Owls calling to one another deep in the woods. Who … who, who … hoot. I am so very grateful to be in this beautiful place.

 A bit later, heading out for our morning walk, I looked up to find the sky to be a crisscross of chem trails. What? Who? Why do we do this, I wonder, anger rising. I need a few moments to breathe and return to gratitude.

I was reminded of a conversation yesterday with a friend as we were sharing the attention required to navigate life in this time of chaos, a time when we feel challenged to hold our center, our peace amidst war, cruelty, starvation, and other human experiences. She spoke of a teacher who once told her, “… care, and don’t allow your care to disturb your deep peace.” Sometimes easier said than done. Gratitude is a practice that helps clear the path.

Today, the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, has me remembering the classroom I was in when the announcement came over the crackling speaker that connected our room to the school office. I was shaken not just by the announcement but also by the teacher’s inappropriate chuckle and muttered words that sounded something like ‘he deserved it’. Little did I know that her muttered response was a harbinger of more and visible divisiveness to come.

This morning as I read the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, Greetings to the Natural World I reflected once again that, while it is good to have a special day to give thanks, the irony of Thanksgiving’s origins in this country deserves us to pause for thoughtful consideration. As you give thanks, I’ll leave that consideration to your heart and soul. I’m grateful that as a society we are beginning to acknowledge, understand, and hopefully, move beyond the dark choices that haunt our past.

Despite the disgust and sadness I feel for the atrocities we force upon one another and on our dear planet, I’m grateful for this life and for the opportunities to learn and grow that are ever present.  Despite the irony of the holiday’s origins, I celebrate, grateful for my conviction that, despite history and the current chaos and cruelty worldwide, justice and light will prevail.

Several years back, sitting quietly by the fire on a cold morning, I began to write in my journal. The words that came surprised me and took me to an unexpected place: gratitude for being me.  As I ease into Thanksgiving Day 2023, I remember all that I’m grateful for and my words then inspire my prayer of thanks for 2023:

I’m grateful for how I live my life, the choices I make, the insight and curiosity I experience, my love of quiet and of Nature’s beauty. I’m grateful that I take reasonably good care of myself. I’m grateful that I take time to ease into the day and enjoy the morning quiet. I’m grateful for introspection and for how I see the world unfolding perfectly in this human experiment despite events that are horrific beyond my understanding. I’m grateful for this year’s events and for those individuals whose actions continue to challenge me to hold this light.

I’m grateful for all the beings who are holding light in the midst of darkness.

I’m grateful for the challenges and changes this year has thrust upon me personally and on all of us as a community of humans. I’m grateful for the experience of abundance and that I’m able to share in my community and beyond. I’m grateful for those in my community and beyond toil daily to produce nutritious food and enrich the soil.

I remain grateful for nine years with Cool Hand Luke Skywalker and for all that he taught me about patience, forgiveness, rest, play, listening and so much more. His ongoing presence reminds me that life is a continuum not a finite event. I’m grateful for Zadie Byrd carrying the torch of being my canine companion and teacher. Her sweet presence in my life is a constant blessing that grows each year.

I’m grateful for how I’ve faced the challenges in my life, even those where in hindsight I saw a different way for me to be. Each offered a gift, and I did my best to accept it.

This year I’m especially grateful that I enjoy my own company as well as the company of others. Both are so very important, yet we humans so very often shun being alone for fear of being lonely, forgetting that in our aloneness we hear Your voice and feel Your presence.

Thank You for always being with me/in me. Thank YOU for allowing and guiding me to be me. I feel so close You, God, in these quiet moments and I am so very grateful.

When we give thanks for being who we are, we tap into the vitality of life. Wherever this week finds you, may you feel a depth of gratitude that goes deeper and further than any you have felt in your past.

May CHEERFUL Be Your Way!

Breaking Habits and Patterns

Blanca Peak in the Sangre de Cristo range

This time calls for us to become more humane toward one another so that we move beyond the paradigm of separation to embrace one another and ALL life as our kin. We are called to BE and to live authentically in alignment with how life truly is.

Rising early this morning I built a fire in the woodstove to break the morning chill. Settling in to my habitual weather check before beginning to write, I discovered the internet down – no local weather, no email, no access to Zoom. Hmmmm… Perfect conditions for experimenting with adjustments to the morning and daily routines, especially since I want to feed Zadie Byrd earlier in the day to increase the time between her meals.

‘Zades’ looks confused as I begin preparing her breakfast before our morning walk and at a time I’m usually quietly journalling by the fire. When breakfast is served this four-legged lover of most all things ‘food’ needs a bit of coaxing to eat.  It feels strange to me as well, but as I go about the tasks of preparation the adjustment feels just right. I notice the easy flow and I begin to think about the weekly post: What wants to be shared today?

I remember an email newsletter that I’d thought about quoting and expanding on its theme, something like ‘sometimes the answer is not finding the answer’. The essence is that there are times when we need to stop, give ourselves time to reflect before we can know how to respond – themes that run through many posts and, indeed, my life (apologies to the great folks at Regenerate Change if I obliterated your focus).

I suspect that the reason the article grabbed my attention is that it reflects my longing for the deep peace and quiet of cold, snowy winter days when the hours of daylight pass quickly and the nights are long and dark.

Perhaps that sort of longing is what inspires people to decorate early for the holidays … but that (declares Muse) is a path not to tread this day.

l sense that my current longing for winter stems from the depth of intensity I feel in all of life, different from intense times in my past. I’m certain that my observations of global and national events is also a factor.

I see the intensity reflected in turmoil, rancor, and violence around the globe. I see it in Earth changes and in the planet speaking her language: earthquakes, fires, floods, volcanic eruptions, along with the beauty of new growth, vibrant health of some ecosystems, and the cycles of birth and death in all species.

This time calls for us to become more humane toward one another so that we move beyond the paradigm of separation to embrace one another and ALL life as our kin. We are called to BE and to live authentically in alignment with how life truly is.

This time asks us to break habits and patterns – from the feeding and care of ourselves and our beloved animal companions to the trigger-happy, warmongering reactions that have become all too frequent.

It requires that we break patterns of abuse – self-abuse and abuse of others in our thoughts, our words, our deeds – and that we live knowing that every human and every living thing has worth, has value, has purpose even in the darkest of times and conditions. Even, perhaps especially, when we ourselves feel unworthy or undeserving.

It requires crystal clear clarity to help us see beyond our old stories and into the creation of new stories that reflect the truth of who we are.

It invites us to BE and embody who we truly are – not who or what we (or the world’s old stories) dictate that we should be – and to embrace that we are each living in this turbulent time at what is the perfect, divine time for our soul’s development on its unique, infinite trajectory.

Humanity is calling, the Earth is calling, the cosmos is calling. How will we answer the call?

Nature’s Beauty in the Woods Out Back

Pivoting to Rest

Cozy Fire to Chase the Morning Chill Away

There are days in life when you just need to pull the covers over your head … Gregge Tiffen

Early this morning after settling in by the warming fire I found myself challenged to focus on writing this week’s Pivot. The week has been eventful. Body, mind, and spirit active, with insights, curiosities, and musings to share. Yet none drew me in or pointed to ‘this’ as a focus.

As I sat, I felt deep sadness for the turmoil and suffering in the world – globally and right here in my community. I was present to adjustments I’m making to support Zadie Byrd in health challenges typical for senior canines and to my own process of recovery still underway several weeks after a fall.

As I wondered ‘Yes, but what about today’s post?’, Muse popped in and reminded me of Gregge’s words. Words heard long ago that have stayed with me as guidance on days when I’ve simply felt ‘off’. Words that remind me of the importance of rest, so often forgotten in our culture where doing and accomplishing often reign supreme.

And so, this day while I’m not pulling the covers over my head, I am pivoting to rest. Body needs time of minimal activity to heal its inflamed rotator cuffs. Mind and Spirit need reflection and integration time to dance with the deep changes underway – personally and cosmically.

Muse says we’ll be back next week and invites you to enjoy these quotes [compiled by Jennifer Healey in a 2019 blog post] about the benefits of rest and to assess your own need for rest at this intense time.

Real rest feels like every cell is thanking you for taking care of you. It’s calm, not full of checklists and chores. It’s simple: not multitasking; not fixing broken things. Jennifer Williamson

When you rest, you catch your breath and it holds you up, like water wings… Anne Lamott

Your commitment to your wellness is part of the revolution. Danielle LaPorte

Early Morning Sky