In April I completed a daily poem challenge. I wrote and posted a poem every single day for the month. It felt like a huge accomplishment and was also self-nourishing.
You know what else is self-nourishing? Doing this challenge with others and knowing I just don’t feel like being ON and doing this every day. It’s self-nourishing to be less committed to daily blogging and more committed to my positive thoughts.
So, I’m here.
I’m definitely here; and I also want to read a lot more and comment as I can. Being here and being with those other bloggers is what it’s all about.
Let’s all be perfectly imperfect!
For me, this looks like being intentional about joining, but NOT doing it in full. Doing it in full can come again when that is the challenge I really want to go for. I’m regularly involved in so many daily self-discipline practices, such as with a specific daily meditation, journaling (falling behind on that one), and physical disciplines of stretching, yoga and strength training.
My days aren’t perfect but I am perfecting every day.
This is a personal update. We just found out last night that we have to redo all the plumbing pipes in our 90 year old home we bought 2 years ago. This comes after non-stop flooding challenges that were related to the actual water and runoff problems from living in an area that is not used to rain, and getting atmospheric rivers and an abundance of water last season. That resulted in having to dig up and fix, in certain places reroute, the water flow from the existing French drains. The same year, this one, our dishwasher malfunctioned and created more water damage in our kitchen which led to the discovery of leaded countertops which led to a kitchen remodel, which is now halfway done.
Then, two days ago the toilet started bubbling.
This one year alone, 2024, has by far and wide been the most challenging of all years. There have been so many personal problems beyond these listed that are still so very private and multi factorial spanning multiple family members. It’s been a year of untold sorrow.
Yet there is still so much hope for an end to this non-stop saga of extreme adaptation.
Or, maybe the adaptation is the only key here. If there be no end, building resilience as far as I see it, is the only way. It’s the only way to move through it. That might not look entirely graceful, but sometimes the key is survival IS thrival.
Maybe that’s why I decided to join this challenge with NanoPoblano—but not really; I’ve had so many challenges that challenges and “getting out of the comfort zone” talk just sounds like BS to me. Not that any cheer peppers take that type of tone. They are a uniquely sincere bunch, living the best they can—not a lot of talk about living out of the comfort zone. Maybe they are working on it, too: still trying to create a comfort zone that never quite existed.
I choose to join OTHERS. I’m not alone. I know that life has been truly traumatizing for so many, mental health conditions are on the rise, and extreme weather and political unknowns have people on edge.
Here’s the thing though:
We are gonna get through this. All of it. Will we be a smidge wiser: YES.
Pause.
This is that fancy time of year when people are all getting together with their families to celebrate the holidays. I will get the gift of having my father come to visit for 2 weeks. That will require adaptation. However, I am so looking forward to seeing him and sharing this Thanksgiving holiday for the first time in so many years. He’s not really a big celebrator. He’s from the school of hard knocks and that’s also how I’m here.
Life is short. Having a roof over my head, sharing love, and knowing that I live in a sanitary environment with my family is good enough for me. Each day has been coming with its surprises. I’m grateful we caught this collapsing old pipes problem now before we had a bigger catastrophe. Sure it’s still a very costly problem, but at least it’s not worse.
That’s all I can say about everything that’s not great: at least it’s not worse. And for the first time, those words are more reassuring and comforting to me than any time they came before (or from someone’s else’s mouth).
Darling view of little K, artistic ‘trick or treat’ moment
Life get sorted by calendars, schedules, holidays.
Each day we make meaning into neat little organized experiences.
With reflection and selection, we go even deeper into the richness we can cultivate.
Along the way, we make friends, hold hands with some, grieve, and share successes and milestones.
This is the bread and butter of life: light and darkness, living and dead, joys and sorrows.
My hope for each one of my friends and loved one is that both grow and glow.
You don’t need to be the brightest star in the night’s sky, nor the sun during the day.
Just be who you are, in all your colors, and let it out a bit more.
Day2 of Cheer Peppers 🌶️ Nano Poblano
I seem to have overdone it with all my travel this month with a trip to Mexico for energy working with colleagues and a trip to Los Angeles with TCM dermatology colleagues at a module 3 training. Now, I’m back for an annual conference and volunteered two days ago and my back hurts and I have a cold. 🤧. I love this season. I call this growing pains! Once I heal up I will be an expanded version of myself. Then I get to do some post-conference volunteering. But, for now, I’m streaming the beloved conference from home. What a modern luxury. To be both ‘here’ and ‘there.’ I also join with Cheer Peppers in November and my deeper celebration underlying it all is writing and art, sharing beauty and what catches my eye. I have plenty to glow about. How about you? I may live in the dark, but glowing is what we do. For that, I have no fear of darkness—only to embrace.
“We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life—those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength.” Oswald Chambers
Faith naturally is not easy. It’s asking to believe before there is proof.
Superheroes don’t really exist like society
fixates on,
in frequent, Marvel movie releases
But there are superpowers. Among these
are Faith, Patience, Perseverence and
Kindness.
No one who came before us was perfect.
Their legacies were not necessarily influential, popular, nor epic.
But their love remains golden for me,
as soft whispering reminders that what’s
worth cultivating, can be cultivated.
Not that they exemplified these superpowers
in every way; but that their regular, human
strength was often good enough.
I think we can all be inspired by “good enough.”
🕯️
🔥
You existed, and you mattered;
and in me, you continue to exist, cultivating…
Persevering.
I joined Cheer Peppers 🌶️ for daily November blogging month just today. I’m not sure if I will post or read every day. It just felt good to join and be in community. So I am keeping it simple: one day at a time, and doing what feels good.
It’s no surprise to me that leading up to the New Moon, I’m getting several requests by a colleague to help her clear curses related to a man she was with. Interestingly my guides have let me know that I have enough on my plate to have this new acquaintance of mine be taking up too much bandwidth for her scenario. They have indicated to me that she has all the work she needs done and she has to process things first before more work is done. In essence, they said “she’s protected now. It’s being taken care of, just encourage her to know this new truth in her heart. To feel it.” “Then step away. You are not peoples’ trash compactors.”
Some jobs in life we ask for, other jobs, well, sometimes it’s just about survival: we didn’t ask for that job, and we certainly aren’t gonna get paid for it. We also don’t need “the guides” to tell us this. Sometimes, though, it certainly helps. If you are getting yourself into curses and using spells, then maybe the magic is too much. Too much attempting to control.
This is not how I live my life. I’m more the meditative type. I’ve always been more meditator and less meddling. Basically no meddling. There are a lot of ethics around what to decide to do and not do when we are empowered. That’s the depth of the gift. You have to know “right use.” In practice, most of the time, you abstain from using your gift until the proper situation requires it. Maybe that’s a little bit Taoist, to minimize intervention, or at least vet it really good if it’s the right time to apply a technique.
There are some areas where skills do get honed but the fact of the matter is, this has to take place with deep introspection and under tutelage and guidance of masters who have walked the path. This can take decades and lifetimes. It’s not something to be taken lightly.
If you feel like you are going through the big squeeze and under strong and peculiar astral forces, you are in good company. My colleague was right that it’s a good time to get rid of unwanted attachments and energies that don’t align with the current version of the work you are here to do. In her fear and desperation she was reaching out to both friends who she knows well and people like me who she really doesn’t know, for ASAP help. That is a vulnerable energy. We can be respectful and also know our boundaries which is another lesson in this New Moon in Scorpio. What boundaries are you holding?
I’m not into doing emergency energy work. It’s not my style. I want regular and dedicated focus at working on all the aspects, space and safety to explore what is truly needed. I want slow development with time and trust organically blossoming. I want carefulness and expertise in form and focus. This is what I deserve to attract in my life. This is the energy I wish to share. When I choose to work with people and learn from them, they have high ethics, and their work is very clean.
One of my meditation teachers via Kadampa said “there are lots of things you can do, but should you do them?” I think that question is also fitting for this New Moon in Scorpio. Let’s pretend that Scorpio is the proverbial scalpel. You have a grand trine between Mercury, Mars and Neptune. Be clear on right action, right use of language, and right intentions. Right use of the knife.
Neptune has a very transcendent quality and can link us immediately back in (plug in) to source. The Mars/Pluto opposition is the pressure cooker, the alchemical process our world is under. It’s like how heat speeds up the enzymes reaction in a chemistry experiment. The heat in this metaphor is driven from this pressure created from the structure— from the life “setup.”
This New Moon in Scorpio is a good time to realize that we really, really are all connected. Energy can flow and form and mix. It can get stuck. People are likely working in soul teams, having made agreements to share in the overall load. So this is a good time to look at your agreements. Look at the agreements you make with yourself first. What are you willing and not willing to put up with? That includes from yourself. Secure yourself as that loving ally and marry yourself to that job. Then the other jobs, people and pressures, will follow suit. At least, in theory. You cannot control outcome, but you can hone your energy and your intention.
This Aries Full Moon has a grand cross formation involving an opposition between Mars and Pluto. Slicing through this grand cross (square) of conflicting pattern is also the opposition of Venus in Scorpio and Uranus in Taurus. These areas of life (based on individual charts) are causes for either a lot of effort and focus, intense creativity and courage, or some level of frustration— even possibly breakthrough can result. The pattern is cardinal which means it has direction. The cardinal signs are Aries, Libra, Cancer and Capricorn and bring in the new energies of the equinoxes and the solstices. They are signs that point the way forward as the wheel turns.
Life goes on. I read a wonderful quote by Robert Frost, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
So we are at crossroads and impasses which are more or less one and the same. The outer experience of the world is unfulfilling as it is designed to be. The pursuit for happiness or contentment does not belong in the external landscapes of appearances.
Sun is trine to Jupiter with Moon sextile Jupiter which can show us the bigger picture. For me, I’ve gotten more spiritually aspirational and my disciplines and practices have benefited from my renewed vision.
I can thank Jupiter and prayer for the levity that has entered from the inside. It’s a functional levity and anchored to the awareness of impermanence.
If you should find yourself inspired or frustrated during this full moon general time, you can wait it out, or ride it out. Either way, even a very rigid pattern in the consciousness of being “stuck” or being focused doesn’t last long. If you have the focus and the energy, enjoy the flow—if you feel constrained, it will pass.
It’s a good set of days to journal on your motivations and reflect on what exactly inspires courage in you to face all the unknowns of regular life.
Have a full moon with wonder! Or have a wonderful, full moon! Enjoy being alive to live and to thrive, or just wait it out.
Realistically, there’s a lot of good in this chart. Perhaps we can see it if we look: You see those blue lines. They usually mean “favorable” positions. What determines that is they are sextiles or trine aspects. That means in geometric terms: 60 or 12o degree relationships between the two bodies in question (usually planets, but could be asteroids, or even signs, or mathematical abstractions with meaning).
So astrology is 2-D. But we can learn a lot from a drawing or a painting. The planetary bodies have made us this drawing in the canopy above us.
The red is the challenging aspect that involves the planet Mars (in Cancer). We might be even more dialed into family, heritage and home right now. Some family might need extra support. Conflicts can arise or better yet, energy with the Mars (go get it) for the sake of caring and nurturing issues close to home, close to our hearts.
I’ll be flighting tomorrow morning to Mexico and will be in Playa Del Carmen for a special retreat. I look forward to “seeing” you all when I get back. I might even post while I’m gone. I will have more time to think and BE. Either way, creativity will have room to flow. I will be in alignment with more of my own energy.
So, that’s how I’m enjoying my “reset button.” Eclipse energy is usually active for several months. Enjoy the potential!
The Pisces Lunar Eclipse is coming in. You may have noticed. You may not have. Some of us are aloof to the feels and the nebulously non-anchoring energy that is the long-term Piscean swim through the cerulean cosmic consciousness, plunged into the pitch-black depths of an unknown watery terrain. The laws of physics apply differently than on land; gravity is experienced with resistance to the water molecules; we float. Density has its form and function in the water, and we are merging with the element that contains 70-80% of our innards. The word that comes to mind for me in its complete unadulterated fullness is surrender. The oxymoron here is that surrender is when you come up empty, and yet it is pregnant with the only next steps available to take.
There’s a caveat.
Surrender is not something you “will” like an Aries wish made to form (Taurus). Surrender is the experience of weakened knees, utter exhaustion, of hand’s up -white flag-mercy-praying-allowance. “Guide me, oh Spirit of thysavior.” Pisces represents the compete collapse of structure, program, direction, and it uses the narrative of redemption for hope as it moves into the full depth of that Pisces spiritual self-undoing. What Self? Who is there to cling to this rock? I have no hands. My grip is lost. There is no me.
Neptune is the modern ruler of Pisces, and she has been transiting her domicile of Pisces. Her full cycle transit takes 164 years! And, this is where the anaretic degree comes in. It’s a big word for: The end of the sign (29 Degrees Pisces). The end of Neptune’s transit in Pisces. Neptune entered Pisces April 4, 2011. We are harkening back to this time. This was within a month of when I began my blog here. It was intended to be mostly about astrology and spirituality. I did diverge, of course! Can you remember this time in your life? What was your focus?
When we talk about surrendering to love, it feels different, than losing, right? It is the same. We lose what we gain. We gain what we lose. This is the end that is the beginning.
This lunar eclipse features forward the inauguration of the next set of eclipse series of the Pisces and Virgo axis. Neptune won’t be entering into Aries until 2025, but this eclipse is meant to give you a whiff of what is to come. As they say, and I believe it is true: all endings are new beginnings. We might still be in the dark, yet. That’s a special place to be. What people neglect to realize is the “rest” that comes with “release.” Surrender is a way forward, but it must not be utilitzed as that in its full glory, or you will miss the gift inside its package. Surrender is the way out, the way in, and the way through. It is all that is left, but only when we are authentically empty--in order that we may be filled with the new.
I hope you can take a moment in gratitude, for all the pain and suffering in your life and in your lives that is on its way out. I hope you can remember to pray to your God/Goddess inside. For beyond words and illusions, beyond the pointings of spiritual masters, beyond even “good health, wealth, and mirth” is a calling to your soul. It is the only way to get to the redemption. The redemption that only you can supply.
May this full moon be like walking with your hand being held by the creator. May you feel the embrace of love and support, as you grapple with truth and surrender as your only anchors in an anchorless time. May you look to the light of the stars, and feel your feet on the ground. Praise your feet for their walking, your shoes for the supporting. This next age of Neptune in Aries, will help you with your warrior’s sword. The Spiritual Warrior awakens. The truth within be reclaimed.
“After tragedies, one has to invent a new world, knit it or embroider, make it up. It’s not gonna be given to you because you deserve it; it doesn’t work that way. You have to imagine something that doesn’t exist and dig a cave into the future and demand space. It’s a territorial hope affair. At the time, that digging is utopian, but in the future, it will become your reality.”
Are you “into astrology” but tired of hearing the doom and gloom of “intensity” and “watch out for this or that” ?! Are you shamelessly optimistic even if you just spent time being fearful and retracting and reaching out for your stuffie or best friend support animal? Are you soft and empathic and just want everyone to get along already?
Then, you my friends have what I call a fighting spirit (Mars/Uranus). You refuse to give up on peace and positivity no matter how dark and gloomy the forecast.
It’s precisely what you need in this day and age.
It’s about courage to rise up in the face of your own fears, again and again. You will have a unique opportunity to do this in full vibrancy with the full moon in Aquarius.
You already know what to look out for. You live in this world and you feel the energies. So what is left to say after that?
You have unique opportunities during this Aquarius new moon to discover and reveal what is unique about you, and your community.
The Sun (conjunct retrograde Mercury in Leo) and Moon (in Aquarius) is in opposition. This is literally the definition of a full moon—-fully visible, fully illuminated.
The full moon is squaring Uranus: the Prometheus of the zodiac. What is uniquely lights you up? If you were to steal the fire from the Gods, just what would you do with it? Would you share it with the many? How?
How do you find the energy to express yourself in this world? Is it savoring nature, being fully in your own energy? Is it fraternizing with friends and loved ones? Do you feel lit up by your family? Does making art or writing poetry help you keep your inner lights on? What if you just love making brine, cooking exotic stews, or brewing tea leaves from your garden? What if you love words games or networking or going to the grocery store?
What is it you like to do that gives you energy? Watch Netflix? Maybe it does give you energy? What’s the show about?
With this Mars/Uranus conjunction in square aspect to the Saturn in Pisces and Venus in Virgo: Most of us are having trouble staying or keeping organized. Keeping up the day to day basics (Virgo) in a deliberate and orderly fashion. Processing speeds from life events and weather changes, system changes and upgrades are stressing existing systems. The formation of our lives is, for all of us, “under construction.” 🚧 Earth is out of order but still flushing.
There might be more frustration and surprises requiring for more and more adaptations, this is all old hat now. This is the new normal: extremes.
So, underneath the struggle, do you see yourself getting stronger, smarter? Can you admit that even though you have felt at wits end so many times, somehow you just keep going, going and maybe resting, taking breaks or experiencing small adjustments. Meanwhile you are waiting for real change and breakthrough in certain areas. What does progress even mean to you, personally? Have you put your values on paper in words lately? This is a good time to be uniquely focused on that.
This full moon is revealing to you where you are ready to reach and become your next version of yourself, of your human life expression. This full moon is revealing the ways in which you can uniquely motivate yourself to liberate and ‘be and bask in the acceptance’ of what it means to be you—you as an ever-evolving , ever-interconnected being, one with the Earth, one with the stars. One with your ego, your ups and downs, your knows and unknowns. All. Of. It.
This full moon is the time for remarkable acceptance and equanimity with “what is” as a dynamic and ever-revealing process.
Tomorrow is not guaranteed, so today you will make the most of your small moments, embrace your uniqueness, love your discomforts as you allow your metamorphosis to continue taking shape, meeting more like-minded friends and allies along the way. Your community is you. You can see it now. You can see your shifts and the community’s shifts are one. You are able to see outside of the matrix and choose to focus your attention on what really is here to speak to you, turning away from all other messages around conformity or pressure/struggle. It is time to develop your optimism, to actively cultivate it. It is time to focus your attention on what you can see is the world you can work to create. It starts with you. It starts with us. And, we can hold hands doing it, too. Kindness. support. gentle encouragement.
Chanting the world into being, where freedom and peace co-exist and co-mingle—where we can accept ourselves as we are *while* we strive for more. We can tune ourselves to this frequency and feel into it when we are out of alignment. We have choice. Time to exercise it.
Happy Aquarius Full Moon!
Make this a life to go optimistically mad about. Use your force, energy and power for the good, for the collective and most importantly for your own state of mind.
Fiesta Estrellas 
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