"Maiden, Mother, Crone" Clay Art by Lotus Allen; Photograph: Giovanna Capone
Another brand new year! 2012 is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac and promises to be highly creative, exciting and memorable. Happy New Year!
I wound down 2011 with a blessed personal retreat. As I traverse this new terrain in the journey of womanhood, I am re-inventing myself. It’s a powerful and sometimes humbling process that includes heaps of happiness and unexpected surprises, along with plenty of intentional retreat spent in solitude — rest, rejuvenate, dream, meditate, write in journal, visit secret Redwood garden & soak in hot tub, make art, and give to loved ones and others… radical self care.
This special holiday self-gift retreat included a wonderfully expansive three-week Prospering Woman program with my beloved Mentor Coach Helene Van Manen and 19 other women. The Program inspired me to:
- declutter important physical and emotional spaces,
- use “Abundant Joy” essential oil daily,
- release and let go of unwanted baggage that no longer serves,
- practice an important forgiveness ritual,
- get acquainted with Scarcity Woman and who she is within myself,
- envision what my Inner Prospering Woman wants and the manifestation steps to get there.
I received many gifts during retreat. Among them is a new We’Moon 2012 Daybook to guide me through the days and nights with wonderful art and writings from women around the world. My daughter, who is soon to enter her 17th year, also received her first We’Moon. It includes this poem by poet activist Elizabeth Page Roberts that speaks to my intention for this year… and beyond, as I practice new ways of healthy living in joyfulness, harmony and well being.
Be, don't seek. Sit warmly open, lightness in your brow, not questions. Be ready for the quiet when it comes, and the creaking of the house's bones and the wind's music playing the notes of the trees. Be, don't brood. Don't wait for life to announce itself in capitals or high garb. Be available to its whispers, know how to listen when it tells its true self and not the lies you've dreamt up. Be able to breathe and let go of your breath, let go of life as you wish it to be and take in the simplicity, the facts -- The sky is. This day is. This sparrow is. Be, don't try. Your weariness must have shown you something by now. Stay seated in your soul, remember the sun is there, truth and time are there. Be, don't seek. You've already found. You already have. You already know. You already are. -- Elizabeth Page Roberts 2008
Abundance of great blessings is all around us; we need only pause, listen and look to tap into the magical flow of infinite possibilities and be with Source connection. Everything is holy now! “Holy Now” by Peter Mayer (click to listen).