Today’s infographic comes from life and well-being coach Shawn Fink. She’s the founder of the Abundant Mama Project. I regularly get her newsletter in my inbox. She was talking today about her 14 year old daughter who struggles with boredom and how her daughter is an extrovert while the rest of the family tends to be introverted, and she an ambivert.

Do we want to thrive?

I was going through a difficult time several months ago, and I was working with a coach (a different one than I mentioned) who wasn’t hearing me out. She kept asking me to say I wanted joy. At the time, the pandemic had just started and her organization was in the denial of Covid camp. “It was like the flu,” they insinuated. No, it is not. I was having trouble with the “stay positive at all costs” belief systems in my New Age communities. I wanted/and want to see real action and sincerity in the response to this viral threat. Being “high-risk” myself, I wasn’t walking around acting like “well, I have my spiritual bravado to protect me.” For me, I experienced all the humility of being a person who is in charge of being healthy for a young family. I took it (and take it all) very seriously. Spirituality aside, we live in a world where these threats are real, just like the possibility of any other danger, such as fire burns.

Do we want to thrive?

Yes.

Even in the midst of the pandemic (and the life changes because of the worldwide pandemic), even when our most inner self-sabotage can come out to get us, even while struggling to make ends meet.

Yes, we want to thrive.

When so many are suffering, are we even allowed to thrive?

I say yes, and I consider how wonderful and simple the above infographic is, knowing I’ve inwardly been using the above strategies without that coach who I was better off without for the time being.

How are you thriving in ways you don’t even know it? How have you indirectly benefited from the pandemic? What changes have you made that turned to be better for you since you had to make the changes?

We can see that our busy, bustling lives and economies are not in best with the environment. It doesn’t even take all the data and science to see and witness how the environment is affected by our human habits, waste, and extravagances.

How can our environment thrive with us thriving, too? Maybe we can reach up and reach out to our environments? Maybe we can take small steps in social action, maybe we can focus on what brings us joy today. I’m ready to talk about joy, again.

Once again I have been inspired to share from my private grimoire, a small piece from my 15 month body of work, during the Rite of the 12 Celestial Regents. Here is my ode to Mercury at the retrograde station. I am still in review process/month and soon the moon will be new again, and I shall have moved on…

Ode to Mercury:

When I am understanding

That life is not demanding

And the virtues of clarity and reason

Are very much in touch with the season-

When my tendency to think

Has me spinning and on the brink

I can turn to you and you will

Find me a reason to open and fill

My heart with connection.

And the virtues

This interview popped up in my YouTube feed for some reason. Many of us from the United States remember the president well from the 1980s and 1990s and we are well-acquainted with his character. I’m sharing this post for many international viewers who might not “remember” back to 1994.

We are at a critical point in time when women are still trying to be recognized as equal citizens on the planet. There are a lot of differences of opinion out there. I believe in women. I believe in the future. Please consider voting him out. For my international friends, please consider who you trust when you are researching and looking around online. Many of us are alive long enough to know a person’s story longer term.

https://youtu.be/zfMqgdOA5PM

Hello my friends,

The editor is different! I didn’t expect that 🙂

Well, I have been away from blogging for a very long time. I am only around here and there and quite infrequently because I have been busy with motherhood full-time and graduate school full-time, finishing up my last semester in my Master’s program with only 7 more classes to complete my doctorate in Traditional Chinese medicine. If I choose to do that. I also have some straggling onsite clinic work to do when the pandemic becomes less threatening. Meanwhile I’ve been a senior intern in our telehealth and finishing classes.

Also, I am finishing up my 15 month Medicine Woman certification for Rite of the 12 Celestial Regents. As you know, I haven’t had time for my other hobbies like art-making: painting, poetry, or sketching, blogging or photography. My outdoor garden (which is only an urban tower) has been silent and nothing happening there, either.

Oh, but I have been cooking so much and experimenting and having the best time with it!! There’s been no time to prepare posts to my food blog, so I don’t. Life has been pretty darn good during this pandemic despite all the craziness that is around. I’ve enjoyed celebrating Mabon this year with one of my tribes over zoom and with my family. I’ve always been a member of so many different communities. So here I am, back with my own community, on my blog. I love you all so much!!

I wanted to share one of my odes that I wrote for my certificate for Medicine Woman studies: Rite of the 12 celestial Regents. It was an intensive program full of self-development and unveiling shadows, and it was truly a blessing. Here is my ode to the Moon recorded from my private grimoire I created during these last 15 months.

Mother moon I cannot lie

Under you I cry

For in the night I’m fearful and shy

But your love’s not for reason or for whys

You keep my heart safe and wise

And you gently remind me where my true love lies.

Deep inside surrounded within pure prize

Lots of gratitude to my daughter for napping peacefully while I quickly transcribed this message. Wishing you all a beautiful rest of your week! Looking forward to seeing you over at your blogs!

Ka