Looking Up

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I was out last night at midnight and noticed that the sky ahead of me was a strange and lovely shade of blue. “Is that from the moon?” I asked, and looked up. Indeed it was. Clouds had shifted the usual full moon brightness to this velvet hue, and yet, around the moon itself, there were no clouds. A giant ring of cloud and light surrounded the orb, and Jupiter was just off the western edge, misty yet still bright.

I kept looking up. Over and over. What an amazing sight.

Sometimes it is not the thing itself that causes us to pay attention, but the effect that thing has upon everything around it. Our lives send out ripples of light. These interact with atmosphere, causing the night sky to change a strange hue. Someone may notice that the source of that change is us. Someone else – including ourselves – may not. But affect the world we have.

We may notice fear, or pain, or wonder, or excitement, but not the source. We so easily forget the stacking layers of influence. We also forget to look up. Or under. Or around.

The effects are not always that clear to see, but they are present, just like a ring around the moon.

What causes you to pay attention? What causes you to pause in wonder? What reminds you, that you too are sometimes the moon in a misty night sky? What affects you? What effect do you have?

Will you look up?

Not exactly what I saw in California, but close enough! Photo of last night’s moon in Wales by Helen of Bohemian Buzz.

#effect #fullmoon #jupiter

Cusp: Solstice 2012

Everything we need now germinates inside.

Desire pricks like a thorn on grasping hands,

Connecting pain with what we want:

Creating just enough this time, to change

The stories trapped in amber:

Ancient insects, frozen sun.

The darkness unfolds secrets

Creating light invincible.

We can wake up to brilliance,

Giving dawn to this new day.

Somewhere, an elephant teaches calf to swim.

Fern fronds unfurl from ancient forest floor.

Bold violence fells another once again,

And we are left with anger, fear, and grief.

With chance to change or ever stay the same.

The gates of time will open:

Stand attention, time to choose.

The darkness unfolds secrets

Creating light invincible.

We can wake up to brilliance,

Giving dawn to this new day.

Let us seed hope.

#poem #WinterSolstice

Prioritize Desire

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What does your heart or soul long for? 

What do your thoughts turn to? 

What is the desire that has been coiling at your core? 

What are you making a priority?

If we do not act on our deepest soul desires, we are not allowing ourselves to do the work we are meant to do. We can choose to find ways to support our: art, activism, gardening, research, service, music, dance, parenting, writing, justice work, singing, laughter, study, leadership, spiritual practice…Name the abiding desire and we can choose to make the time. We can choose to face the fears, or the voices that tell us no, or the sheer impracticality of it. We can choose to make it practical. To do anything less is to sell our dreams out, to undermine our hearts, to not feel joy.

 Prioritize the actions that stem from desire. Make time. Take time. The whole world will be better for it. 

#desire #practice #priority