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For background on this series, head over to the welcome letter or find the entire series on the roots section of my page.
One of the few certain things in this life is change. Even the seemingly static components that we perceive of the world are always in flow. We live in a body, within ecosystems, and within a universe that expresses cycles within cycles within cycles. Our relationship to this ever evolving fluidity is ripe ground to reveal new perspectives… ripe ground to plant new seeds… and ripe ground to feel our innate connection to the great mystery.
We can both proactively join the currents of some cycles and we can simply bring other ones into conscious awareness thus releasing the suffering of resistance. Some cycles feel obvious while others become clearer with the passing of time.
So let’s drop down into the heart, the body, the energy self and tune in to this magic. I invite you to feel into the following exploration as if it were the first time you were hearing each scenario. Witnessing these opportunities less from a perceived center of a stationary self needing to “do something” and instead as floating amongst this alive existence.
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We’ll start with some playful ones building towards those that can feel more influential in our lives… noting that while separated here for sharing purposes, many of these beautifully overlap with each other.
Think of these first two as joining with the energies much larger than us, as tagging along with nature’s powerful forces at work (think of the East Australian current the turtles are riding in Finding Nemo)… it’s an extra boost, not necessarily always smooth, yet in sync with heart of the elements around us.
The seasons of mother earth: Creatively and emotionally, Winter can be a time of deep stillness, reflection, and eventually the planting of new seeds. Spring - a transitionary season of ideas, blooms, watering the seeds, waking up with the warming planet, and an energetic blast. Summer - pure radiance, pure expression and expansion. Autumn - a transitionary season of gathering, editing our gifts and sharing them with others. You can literally have a year overarching theme where you take a creative endeavor, a new skill, a new way of being intentionally checking in and aligning with the seasons to bring it to life.
(A super simplified example…winter - dreaming of starting a book club in your community, spring - practically drafting the email outreach and planning how you envision the meeting time to come alive, summer - putting yourself out there and inviting others in, autumn - enjoying and being present with the start of the club, checking in over time on which components of it may need to be composted and evolving over time. Yes, of course you could start this any time of year however a joy and support can seep into your endeavors when you dance with the seasons in this way).We can also nurture our physical vessels with the gifts of mama earth each season, more on this in the rituals letter later on however tune into what characteristics of foods and beverages you crave in different seasons, what ways you seek to move your body throughout the year, what colors and objects you may yearn to invite into your home at different times.
The cosmos (and most accessible - the moon): This is an electric one, how thrilling that we are linked to the energy and essence of stars and planets and moons. Just as our earth moon rules the tides of the oceans, so too can her existence influence our own beings. Just as we were imprinted the moment we first came into this world with energies from the placements of the planets at that point in time, we can continue to play with how they may be guiding or playing out in our lives. Astrology, human design, the gene keys can all be magnificent tools if you feel called to them.
In the meantime, an accessible starting point or one to remember if you have communed with her before is the broad four components of a moon cycle…. New moon, a time for composting old patterns and planting seeds (similar to the winter). Waxing moon, a time for initiative and action (spring). Full moon, a time to celebrate your wins and also a time of willingness to see what has moved from the shadows into the light (summer). Waning moon, a time for sharing and pruning (autumn). It is beautiful that our perception of the illumination of the moon is every changing, unlike the sun, yet also predictable in her cyclical nature. As this occurs monthly, she provides a helpful anchor points to tune into as they can be supportive in your own spirit.
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Now we will shift to a few that might feel obvious. The invitation however is to consider where there is space for honoring or surrendering or joining forces with the movement at play… where there is space to explore a spark that catches your attention.
The menstrual cycle: In similar fashion to the seasons and the moon, so too does the menstrual cycle, ruled by shifting hormones, hold a journey to feel into.
The menstrual phase, a time of immense wisdom, clarity, and release (winter, new moon). The follicular phase, a time of increasing energy and lightness (spring, waxing moon). The ovulation phase, a time of peak energy, radiance and social expression (summer, full moon). The luteal phase, a time of slowing down nurturing the vessel (autumn, waning moon). There is a deep deep magic well to dive into on ways to honor, align your work with, align your movement with this system if you are a menstruating person. If this is new to you, begin with just observing in your own life, how you feel and relate to this cycle, and if there could be another way other than how you have been taught or shown.
The physical aging process: We are born, we are nurtured and grow in size, we reach a point of full development, and we slowly atrophy eventually back into the building blocks of life. If we did not preserve our vessels and were buried in the earth, these bodies would simply become soil. It may sound dark for those who do not wish to think of this. It can also be freeing to truly comprehend this body as temporary and thus one to love and honor and live to its fullest potential. How may you honor your aging process? How may you dream and set goals for certain periods of your life based on the reality and facts of aging versus a potential denial? Something to consider and perhaps bring into conversation with others more openly as well.
Motherhood and fatherhood: A cycle I have not yet entered however am in awe of seeing dear friends and loved ones enter at this time. There are the surface level discussions of this chapter - limited sleep, what the baby is doing or not doing, etc. however there are seismic shifts occurring within those parents in their own beings… on a primitive level they will never be the same. How could we expect ourselves or our friends to be the exact same after entering this chapter? There is nothing I am specifically suggesting to do here other than a deep acknowledgment of this, and a reminder of this sacred journey… a reminder to love and get to know intimately the version of you that you are becoming through this process.
Careers and Relationships: The endings, beginnings, and new evolutions of careers and relationships can take on so many different expressions - some feel as if we chose them, others feel forced or done to us. Rather than zoom into and ruminate on specific details of either of these in your life, notice the beauty in the lessons that have come from these cycles. Notice that we get to be a part of a changing reality. We get to become and become again and become again.
There is a fine line between creating change and allowing change. Wether a career or relationship, you do have a power to influence it. You get to choose how you show up, what you believe, how you react. Often times we are asked to shift out of our comfort zones and take a leap for some of this desired change to occur. At the same time, there is much out of our control and other soul’s are involved. A favorite quote of mine when remembering that the practice of yoga is the practice of life is by Joel Kramer - “Yoga is a dance between control and surrender, between pushing and letting go, and when to push and when to let go becomes part of the creative process, part of the open-ended exploration of your being.” I feel this is deeply relevant when tuning into these areas of our lives.
There are too many relationships to explore here however hold the fact in your heart that they a relationship is a living thing - it is not stagnant - whether with your parents, your children, a lover, new friends, old friends, colleagues, whoever it is - the relationship is often a third energy separate from each of you as individuals and one that will inevitably be in motion. Embrace the motion.
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Lastly we will shift to broad cycles that simmer in our bones… the ones that resemble the wind, harder to catch in the moment itself than the obvious calendar date of a new season, however largely impacting how we move through the world.
Life chapters - these are harder to name as it could be a shift in a deep value that you hold, or an event big or small that occurs forever altering your perspective or way of being. You can also think of the archetypes of the maiden, the mother, the crone - not in an aging or literal sense but in how your spirit is calling to be expressed throughout your life. Again, for today no need to do anything about these life chapters. Rather, sense into them. As we see ourselves as ever changing, a subtle resistance is released.
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I’ll close with a key to dropping in and seeing ourselves nested within so many cycles that we wandered through in this letter together… there is an opportunity for our emotional, creative, and physical beings to ride the waves of the seasons and chapters of our lives. We can at times feel suffocated by standardized routines and expected ways of acting or showing up in certain phases, forcing rather than listening. Some of these might feel true and supportive to you, however it is those that signal that they are not your heart’s deepest path that you can play with….listen to the whispers and trust in yourself.
I once was in costa rica when baby turtles were hatching and was able to witness them making the trek from under the sand into the sea. I was at the shoreline and there were a few that were so so close… all they had to do was lift up their little arms and let the sea take them with the next wave that came. Yet as that wave would come, they were flailing about, trying to put their arms in the sand, stopping themselves, flipping over. Sometimes we are flailing, we've gotten so caught up in something that we can't even see at all. We say things we don’t mean, we act in ways we don’t want to act, then we feel bad about it and we flail again. Lifting up our arms doesn't mean giving up, sometimes it can mean simply seeing more clearly.
May you lift up your arms with an open heart and clear eyes. May you join forces with the currents of life itself.
Love,
Erin