Monotasking=Living from Divine Direction=Oneness

What I know so far:

Monotasking does not mean just doing one thing at a time, but about being and doing from a singleness of purpose.

1.  Montasking and multitasking are names for the way in which we use our energy.
2. To be a successful Monotasker requires a willingness to receive Divine Direction.
3.  Divine Direction is Spiritual Energy (thank you Richard Rohr for bringing me to this awareness).
4. Spiritual Energy cannot be managed, maneuvered or manipulated.
5. When I find myself trying to manage (people and things), maneuver the to the way I think I want things or manipulate life to my way, I am no longer in Divine Direction and I have disconnected from the Divine's freely given Spiritual Energy.
6. Breathing, paying attention and praying help me receive Divine Direction.




 

More on the Rhythm of 'One'

As I work with the idea of Mono-tasking, I share with my sister my new awareness.  I think I am developing an new concept. She tells me there is research on the ineffectiveness of multi-tasking and how we may be wired as humans to be mono-taskers.  So, while a new discovery for myself, not a brave new discovery, that will rock the world...I am quite happy to be one of the hundredth monkeys...

I've spent the past few days observing how I move through life. What helps me ground and focus, what takes me out of my centeredness?  How do I move in and out of mono-tasking?  What happens to 'me' during multi-tasking frenzy?  Do I have times of multi-tasking ease?  Hmmm?  I notice there I times when I am single-focused, as in writing, and I can stay focused and get up and change the laundry (a benefit of working from home???) and come back to my writing.  Then there are times when getting up to change the laundry leads to making more coffee, checking my email, letting the dog out... I am off and running to wherever the next awareness of the outside world takes me. How does this happen?

When I am in contact with my most inner self I am able to stay on task with my priorities.  How to do this?  All the great teachers and mystics from the past have the same messages of how to do this: Pay Attention.  Breathe.  Pray. 

I don't suppose it matters which one I start with, and this varies depending on what is happening at the time.  Sometimes I catch my breath and remember to pay attention. Sometimes what causes me to pay attention leads to a pray.  I do know that paying attention to my breathing usually leads me to a prayer (whether "Help!" or "Thanks!"). 

 Hildegard von Bingen is one of my favorite christian mystics. Over Thanksgiving,  I took some time to read a new historical novel Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen [Mary Sharratt]about her life.  Hildegard came to know when her life moved more easily, regardless of her difficulties or physical pain, when she aligned with her understanding of the Divine (By the way, God manifest in feminine form in her visions) and the Divine moved from the core of her physical being. 

The Circle of Self work offers a path and process for living life from our inner most self: our center, our core, our place of connection to the Divine).  My vision intention and goals for each moon cycle are a learning process about the flow of my life and my part in this flow.  I remind myself life is a process and a path of becoming.  When I am an active part of this path, when I use these tools and this support ACTIVELY a rhythm and flow emerges.  I am 'at one' with myself and the Divine. From this place of being I move from a place of single focus (mono-task) which allows for holding more and doing more and staying connected to my 'mono'.

 

Working With 'ONE' As A Path To Presence

I have always thought of myself as a great multi-tasker.  Truth is, I am most certainly a mono-tasker. I have been deluding myself for years. This is a rude awakening for me, coming to know I had been living with the illusion, or delusion of being a multi-tasker.  I came to know more of the truth of this aspect of my character when I committed myself to taking four hours of consecutive quiet and retreat time during this past week.  It didn't happen.  It didn't happen in an obvious, in my face kind of way.  It's not that I didn't get anything done, I attended to a number of things.  My attention was called to a broad array of items, nearly all legitimate and needful. What I discovered was the things I attended to were not the things I held as  my highest priorities: like four hours of personal retreat time, and two consecutive hours of writing time, daily. 

I CAN do many things at once.  The questions that come have more to do with what part of me is directing what I choose to do, and whether splitting my energy up into multiple tasks is really serving me, my life purpose or bringing me the desired balance and focus I say I am committed to.  Who really is in charge of my decision making? 

As I review my past week, I acknowledge nearly every thing I did had some value.  I didn't actually 'waste' any time AND I also didn't do ANY of what I had listed as the top three items of my priority list, either.  This is where the rub comes in.  Life throws us curve balls all the time.  The thing about curve balls is they change direction as they come toward us and we naturally shift the direction of our focus as we notice.  Suddenly, the intentions at the top of the list are out of sight and out of mind.  Shifting focus automatically shifts balance and shifts where our energy goes.  We don't choose curve balls, and they usually require some kind of attention so we don't get hit. 

As I sit here writing, I am being barraged by the onslaught of three people talking, disregarding my request to quiet writing time.  Perfect example of this kind of curve ball.  How do I manage this?  Breathe, focus inward. The distraction comes from two places that I notice:  my emotional response (aggravation and resentment) and lack of skill at mono-tasking.  Does mono-tasking takes more skill than multi-tasking...food for thought.  

Taking Time for Presence=Path to Balance

As I move through the waning phase of this 11^th moon cycle, I find myself becoming more aware of a pull toward quiet time with just myself; no distractions, no cell phone, not even a knitting project to distract me.  I am longing for some time to reconnect with myself – my deep within myself SELF.  I would call this SELF the ‘me’ which springs from the place of the inner soul on the circle of self map. From this place all the Aspects and Elements receive my attention and care. When I don’t give this SELF adequate attention, balance in the rest of my life falls off-or falls apart.  The story of Walks Tall Women relates the need for women to take time for silence and retreat on a regular basis.  It’s good to have this reminder as we enter the time before the holiday crush. 

In my spiritual practice, I honor the keeping of the Advent ritual, also reminding us to be still, to reflect, and also to stay awake, not unlike time spent in vision questing.   While I may not be able to fit in 4 days and 4 nights as I would questing.  I can find four hours this week to just be with myself.  From this place of being, I can begin to see the places where I am not at ease with my life.  I can face my self-judgments and I can allow the inner order coming from Divine Direction through my Soul to manifest more clearly.  Using the image of the Circle of Self Map as a focal point, I invite the best rhythm and balance for my life to become an ongoing presence in my life.

 

 

Releasing Old Patterns-Waning Moon

What are the old patterns I am releasing? How to release a pattern?  What is required?  I think about letting go or releasing is there a difference? For example, I keep getting caught up with words running through my mind, and yet refusing to commit them to writing.  How do I let go of whatever habit I have that keeps me from committing to my writing more fully?

I have an image of an untethered voice in my head—running wild, when I pull it in close for examination, if it is not controlled; I fear it might beat me to pieces! If I sedate it, what do I want to do with it? Examine it for????  OK.  Now I have found what is causing all the upheaval: there are external distractions (like the lion with the thorn in his foot that the mouse took out), an external irritant that I can remove.  Is that all or are there other dis-eases, in-juries, dis-orders which need attending? 

Dis-ease:  Where am I not at ease in my life?

In-juries:  Where am I judging, making rulings, giving directives, awarding damages or handing out punishments?

Dis-orders:  What has gotten out of order in my life?

Over the next few days I’ll share what I uncover as I further explore these questions. Even in the process of this explore, I come back into rhythm.

November Full Moon Musings: What Walks Tall Woman Teaches Me

As I was driving at sunset last evening, I saw the most beautiful near-full moon I think I have ever seen.  The moon seemed to be floating behind a veil of pale pink, white and lavender clouds painted by the setting sun. I experienced the beauty of this scene with awe and gratitude, and at the same time I felt a rush of panic and a flitter of anxiety course through my body.  I’ve been experiencing this particular moon cycle as rushed, jumbled, chaotic and without focus. What a contrast to last month’s focused and purposeful cycle. Now, here was the full moon and I judged myself harshly: I hadn’t accomplished anything. 

In an effort to reset and refocus, I picked up my Thirteen Clan Mothers book  (see resources)to reflect upon the lessons of the Clan Mother for this month. Walks Tall Woman…Hmmm. It seems I have been manifesting a replication of Walks Tall Woman’s initial way of being in the world-a high level of pushing energy and over activity followed by collapse and exhaustion.  So what lessons can I take from her teaching for moving through the last part of this cycle, as well as the next part of my life? Can I bring a balance to my personal expectations and my drive to achieve, with the faith of being in the present moment and being willing to listen and act according to Divine Will? Can I become aware of my own inner rhythm rather than falling prey to perfectionism and workaholism?

By taking time for myself, away from my partner, away from the pull of holiday preparations, away from all that is not priority in my life, I can achieve a state of balance. I am aware of needing to be clearer about the amount and kind of alone time I truly need. There is a balance between alone time and isolating.  I need to learn to be aware of my own physical rhythms and cycles. No longer having a menstrual flow to remind me, what is the rhythm of this wise body? In my whole-person counseling practice I walk with my clients as their guide and witness down the paths of knowledge, hope, balance and change.  In my own life, I take the same paths, and I, too, need a witness and guide for my own journey.  While I already have these guides in my life, I know I can use their skills and knowledge more fully than I have to help me manifest my life more fully.

As I move into the waning phase of this November Moon Cycle, I am not releasing new manifestations-that was last month’s journey.  I am, rather, releasing an old pattern (several old patterns) and being observant of what comes forward as a new way of being.  I am reminded in the Walks Tall Woman story that I, too, am called to lead by example.  The nature of my work in all my roles calls for this.  I can laugh at myself as well, knowing how I often lead by the example of my missteps and foibles.

Rhythms and the Return of Discipline

I've taken a ten day hiatus from blogging.  Not consciously on purpose, but rather by getting off track from my focused priorities, from slipping out of the rhythm I had been nicely flowing in for the past two months. 

Traveling can shift us out of our rhythm; so can holidays, or crises. But mostly, we get out of our rhythms by taking our attention off our priorities.  At least that is how I do it. Hind-sight allows for good analysis of what is going on under the surface of slipping out of focus for me. I'm starting to see the results of my focused intention and behaviors. Goals are coming into sight-with good probabilities of coming to fruition.  Change is happening faster than planned.  My beliefs about myself are shifting. I've come up against another cycle of being called to look myself in my heart and in my soul and my mind and see where I need to make more changes, come to a deeper level of honesty and give up more bad habits.  I saw how I gradually let go my exercise routine, went on a sugar binge (%$*&>!# candy corn!), started sleeping in too long so I missed my morning writing time.

I'm traveling tomorrow.  I could take this as another excuse to stay out of rhythm and commitment. I'm off to my sister's for the Thanksgiving Holiday. I'm fortunate because she's the kind of sister who will give me a little nudge and walk beside me for a few steps and I'll be back in my rhythm in no time!

Blessings and gratitude to you all;

Defining Rhythms and Cycles

Rhythms and Cycles happen, with or without our awareness.  We are affected by the rhythms and cycles in our life with or without our awareness as well.  There is a simple formula to explain the relationship between awareness level and effect of a cycle’s rhythm.  Cycles have rhythms within them.  There may also be rhythms without cycles. 

Some rhythms which don’t necessarily have a particular cycle:

Heartbeat

Bee buzz

Electric motor

White noise machine

Drum beat

Metronome

Pulse

Humming bird

I was thinking about places where there are cycles without rhythms.  I could only think of man- made things like the washing machine. 

Then there are rhythms within cycles, like breathing and menstruation, bio-rhythms and circadian rhythms, and of course the moon. 

Example of why it is important to live in sync with the rhythms and cycles of our life: When there is a rip-tide at the beach, there are specific directions for survival if one should be caught one in a riptide.  Swimming with the rhythm of the current can save our life; fighting the current guarantees exhaustion at a minimum or death at worst.

In Circle of Self^® the working with moon cycles instructs us on living in the rhythm of life. First we notice and become aware of the moon’s cycle.  Next, we align ourselves with the moon’s cycles by our intention of focus for our chosen Aspect/Element. Third, we sync our practice with the cycles of the moon.  Over-time, the rhythm of the cycles begin to move our intentions alignment, syncing. 

Becoming aware of the movement in the waning days of the cycle of the moon, I became aware of the deeper aspects and potential of using  Moon Cycles as a support for living our life.  Definitely more to come!

I Hate the Time Change/ Disruptions in Rhythm

Five days into the falling-back time change:  I’m still not back in my rhythm.  I hate the early darkness and the earlier light.  I hate the time change in the spring, too.  Both disrupt my rhythm.  Both are manmade manipulations of time.  But I am REALLY HATING this one!

When I sit with my reaction to the time change, I am frankly surprised:  resentment, anger, frustration.  I feel like I am a victim with no recourse or way to manage what is happening. This arbitrary, out dated, imposed adjustment of the clock infuriates me. 

I began writing this blog post on Monday, noticed what seemed an unreasonably strong reaction, so I set it aside to simmer-down for a day or so.  Now, on Wednesday, I’m still grumbling, still feeling exhausted and out of my rhythm.  Being out of my rhythm underlies my feelings.  There was a comfort in writing in the early morning darkness of the past couple of months.  Now, the morning is star is gone from sight when I get up and my writing rhythm seems gone from access as well. Antsy and irritable are my primary feelings.  I can’t change the time change and I have no serenity about it.  And the more I write the madder I get.

Underneath:  With the time change I became disconnected from a rhythm which was supporting me.  By using what Gabriele Lusser Rico refers to as ‘clustering’ in her book ‘Writing the Natural Way’  (I call it spider-webbing) I diagram what is connected to ‘disruption of rhythm’.  With just a few words I know what is underlying my disconnection:  the time change is a stand-in for other things in my life that are challenging my commitment to writing.  My doing things differently is a hard adjustment for my spouse.  It is easier to be upset with the time-change than with his sometimes not so subtle push and pull at my change in behavior (getting up earlier and spending more time in my work).  How much space is there in my rhythm to negotiate multiple needs without losing myself, my intentions, my goals, my needs?  

This reminds me of the best-selling inspirational book: ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ Spencer Johnson (1998).

 

 

 

 

The Phenomenon of Release: The Journey of Waning With the Moon

I’m curious to know what others experience when they release at the full moon.  Is there a different sensation of aftermath when we release/let go of those things which no longer serve us, or which hamper our growth from those times when we send out into the world a new project, intention or accomplishment? 

My usual way of being with my full moon work has been to do ceremony, be very present for the evening of the ceremony and the next morning I'm already moving on to the next thing in my life.  I am now aware my full moon energy has been more of a segmented piece in my cycle-work rather than part of a flow.  A comment from a COS participant led me to rethink how I had been doing my full moon ceremonies.  She commented it seemed to take a few days into the waning moon cycle for her to feel any shift from her full moon ceremony.  I  acnowkledged I had not taken the time to notice, instead done my usual thing of moving full steam ahead!

So this month when I finished my project on the full moon, I paid attention to the aftermath of sending my work out into the world.  First, I noticed how much I second guess myself.  I noticed how fear, anxiety andself-criticism seep into my thoughts after initial elation.  Less than 24 hours later, I start to doubt my work.  Day two, I am antsy to engage in something new to avoid thinking more about what I may or may not have done ‘good enough’.  Day three, I am grateful for a reset.  Talking with wise colleagues helps me center myself in my intention.   “Remember,” I tell myself, “you released your work to the world with a prayer.  It is out of your hands now, in God’s hands.  She will do what needs done with your efforts.”   I had ease and flow the rest of the day.

Day four:  An irritable Friday, I want to be left alone.  I have no flow of words.  It takes repeated efforts at mindfulness for me to acknowledge the underlying current of my discontent, and speak about it.  I am grateful I can stay centered, even when there is no resolution.  But still, no writing comes.  I’m glad for the distraction of my grandchildren.

Saturday, day five:  Is this the energy of the waning moon I notice?  This is a new feeling.  What I have released, sent out into the world also takes me out into the world a bit more as well.  I feel my willingness to continue on.  Despite distractions in the day, trips to the mall, playing with grand-girls and calls to multi-task, my writing self is with me all day.  I will start to carry a little notebook to jot down writing thoughts coming through me.  I don’t feel antsy or irritable about not beng home with access to my computer.  I 'm okay a bit of me is released into the world as well as my project.  In releasing, I have become fuller and more of my Self.  I filled pages and pages on rhythm and cycles, this morning. In the days to come I will edit them and perhaps a chapter will begin to emerge.  I am thinking about starting on the book proposal.  Already I am preparing for the next gestation. I will watch and listen and respond.  I am just at the threshold of understanding the power in the waning moon.

October Moon Cycle is a Harbinger of Vision

Jamie Sams writing about the October Clan Mother is one of my favorites.  I am drawn to this story because it relates to how the strength of our vision and dreams can manifest when we are in alignment with Divine Will and when we hold fast to hope and faith. 

There is currently a lot of focus on the coming of December 2012 and the changes that will happen with the ending of the Mayan calendar.  The changes that will happen are not so much because of the calendar, but because there are many many people who are beginning to focus their energy on making things better for this planet and for all of her inhabitants. 

The links below are a sampling of some of the people and groups are leading the way for this Vision:

Barbara Marx Hubbard and Agents of Conscious Evolution 
Marriane WIlliamson
The Shift Network and Conscious Evolution

And one Circle of Self member offers her own profound awareness
Zen Cowgirl

Distraction, Disappointment, Discipline,

This morning I realized I had not published my blog post from yesterday.  It was written, just not published.  Does that count in my commitment to blog every day fro the month of October?  I am disappointed in myself. I find myself resenting the ease with which I get distracted, even when I am behaving in a way that feels like I am disciplined.

I chide myself about not being able to keep a thirty day commitment-just one day of getting slightly off track ruined it.  A few distractions was all it took.  I am so disappointed in myself, for being just enough out of alignment with my intention on my quest for discipline. 
I tell myself I can't help my disappointment and judgment and self-flagellating.  Part of this in NOT true-the last two I can help and I can stop. I can acknowledge my disappointment (that is a feeling that came as a reaction). I can choose to have disappointment without the negative judgment and without beating myself up. 

What is it about ME that I can't make even a week of a thirty day commitment (requiring less than a half an hour a day!).  This morning I heard on NPR th estory of a woman marine lieutenant who has committed to make it through 86 sixteen-hour days to prove herself.  When the story aired she's on day one.  She is committed to 85 more so she can set a path for other women.  The only other woman marine in the class did not make it through day one. Neither did 30% of the male marines.  Then I heardthe story about the butterfly professor who committed to 40 years of study to create the I-max film on butterfly migration.  40 years-I couldn't even make four days before being tripped-up! Wow!  I was realy getting down on myself!

If I look from a higher perspective is see these all are cycles-16 hours, 24 hours, 4 days, 30 days, 85 days, 40 years...all cycles and cycles within cycles. Cycles:  beginning-ending, receiving-giving, creating-disassembling, holding on-letting go, resting-moving, allowing-stopping.  Cycles are both spiral and at the same time have starting and stopping points, both/and not either/or. There is a connection between cycles and reading between the lines. Maybe the lines are the space within which our cycles occur? Is it more important to know the lines or to know what is between them?

The Ricochet Effect of Holding On (AKA fear)

My experience with myself and with many people I have worked with over the years is we all stop doing what supports us and would take us in the direction our spirit and soul calls us to go.  The visual I have is that of the trapeze artist who at some point has to let go of one rope in order to take hold of the next one.  As I track my own work, I see myself stop my own counseling or coaching sessions, skip my daily spiritual practices,  sabotage my diet,  etc.  just when I am ready to reach a goal or put a decision into reality. My clients will say-oh, I'm going to take a few weeks off, I'm so busy (or whatever reason they have) just when they are lined up to grab the next bar. Unfortunately, just like the trapeze artist who fails to let go, the ricochet effect of not going on causes an even bigger set back and requires more hard work, time, energy, fear and regret and self blame than before.


Sara wrote this on her blog this morning and it so tied in with what I was musing about.  Well worth the read:   http://cowgirlzen.com/embracing-irritation

New Moon's Arising--shining on our homes and hearts

The new moon for March is upon us.  With the March moon the Spring Season also begins.  As it happens, season of lent in the Christian liturgical year also begins this week. 

It's time to begin 'spring cleaning'-not only in our homes,but in our hearts and our lives.  I grew up Catholic and lent was always a time of giving up something we 'loved'.  For us kids, that usually meant candy.  I have friends who still follow this practice of giving something up-most often it's alcohol, coffee or chocolate. 

This year, I've decided to do this Lenten practice again: I've decided to give up being irritated-just for the next 40 days and forty nights. I might not be able to stop being irritated, but I commit to stop myself from putting what irritates me onto others.  (IE stop bitching, crabby, and blaming).  I am going to watch myself, watching myself with my reactions: (to learn about how to practice this exercise go to http://www.circleofself.com/Pdfs/aspectselements/PersonalAspectofSelfOverview.pdf  )

If I'm going to be successful, I will spend time doing some spring cleaning.  Starting in the 'easiest' place I will be truthful with myself about what needs to be cleared out of my home space-my office,my kitchen, my closets and the stuff I have stashed in the basement over the winter. Then I might move to my heart.  What am I clinging to that invites irritation into my life?What are my resentments and past hurts that small things stir up again? I will do an honest inventory of where I need to have boundaries for myself and others and where it is time to have a more clear and open heart.  Finally, I will work on housecleaning in my life--a few bad habits have taken residence in my life over this past winter.  I've brought some new people, activities and plans into my life and I  need to make space for them, so I will use the Spring cleaning and truth weighing over this first moon cycle of Spring. 

Working with the Healing Moon of August

For the next 10 or so days we have the opportunity to gather healing energy,feelings thoughts, behaviors and prayers into our lives as we live in the waxing cycle of the August Moon.  In Eath Medicine, on page 207, Jamie Sams writes, "There is nothing that has been done to you or that you have done to yourself that the Great Mystery and the Earth Mother cannot heal."  What if you really lived this truth for even the next ten days.  How do you think it would change your perception of your self? of your life and your world? 

Here is the catch, however, that in my eperience, both personally and with clients, which keeps us from being able to embrace Sams' words. (And certainly, she is not the only one who has written or spoke of this truth.  You can find similar teachings about healing in the words of all our great teachers and healers through out history.)  The catch is, particularly in our western culture that we confuse 'healing' with 'curing'. 

As I struggle with some hip pain and a lump in the bottom of my foot that has been 'coming and going' for over a year I am reminded that I still wrestle with my belief of what it means to be 'healed'.  At the very least, this struggle keeps me from judging clients who also insist that to be healed means their malady (which sometimes is very serious) must go away. 

For today,  contemplate what healing meansto you?  Is it different from being cured? 

Dream Messages and the time of the dark of the moon

The waning moon of June is coming to a close, moving this evening to the dark of the moon, preparing for the coming new moon on July 1st. 

I always feel a thinness in the veil I imagine separates me and GOd.  I feel more keenly The Hands of God at this time of month. Either a squeeze of encouragement during a challenge. being held in the palm of respite when I am exhausted, a gentle push (well, and sometimes a whack) when I need to get moving, or a high-five of "you go woman" when I've lept into the unknown!  I love knowing The Hand is always there,I only have to take a breath and remember to notice.  This month I notice some encouraging waving on-"go-keep going The Hands seems to be saying.

The closeness between the Sacred and the Self at this time of month adds power to the practice of reflection and focusing for movement into the next cycle of growth and movement in our life.  It is during this time as well, that I notice dreams get stronger, clearer and at times more urgent in their messages.  I had one of those dreams this morning. It pertains to the seasons of the year.  I woke to this message: "Winter is the Season of loving the Self".  Spring is the Season of loving All Living Things".  "Summer is the Season of loving Human Beings".  "Winter is the Season of loving God".

Full Moon and Sacred Space in Texas

I'm in the central plains of Texas on my sister's Wild Type Ranch.  The land here is flat, the expansive pastures brown and dry from the current drought, but the scrub oaks and late spring wild flowers stand in stubborn resilience to the unrelenting wind and heat. Even under the hardship and stress the current drought brings, there is something magical and sacred here.  I've spent the past few days contemplating what it is that stands behind the magic of this place.

The Full Moon is tonight, though I am not sure it could get much larger and fuller than giant orb that hung over the scrub oaks, horses and cattle last night.  As I walked from the main house to my bunk house bedroom up by the cattle chute, the moon cast a silvery shadows on the out-buildings, the cattle and horses out in the pasture, and the big round bales of hay that lined either side of my path. All appeared more silver than black tonight, and seemed to glow in the the moon-dark.   It's a little scarey walking from the main cabin to the bunk house in the dark.  There could be coyotes, skunks, maybe a bobcat or a wild boar lurking out there in the wild, and the night-sounds seem louder and more unfamiliar tonight; I walked up the draw in a heightened state of alertness. 

Maybe it was the moon glow or my heightened awareness, but, I felt as if I had been transported to the magical land of a fairy tale-or into an alternate dimension.  I went to bed last night feeling certain I was in a very special place.  This afternoon, in the daylight, with no threat of coyote or skunk, I'm sitting alone, in the shade of main house arbor, reflecting on my experience from last night.  It strikes me that for my sister, this whole ranch is her Sacred Space.  Carefully, over time, she and her husband, cleared,  nurtured, replenished and honored this landspace. They learned to watch and listen to the subtle messages given by the land.  Things even most gardners would miss, let alone a suburban-girl.  What certain weeds mean about the condition of the soil; how to shift erosion patterns so the land could recover itself...truly seeing the land as a living being.  They are the same in their relationship with the animals-a true example of being in alignement with the cycles and rhythms of life.  My sister's Sacred Space isn't a stagnant-build it one time and it's done- place. Nor should the sacred spaces we create be.  As we care for the space in our own home, or workplace that we have created as a Sacred Space for supporting our personal growth and development, we care for nurture ourselves and all manner of what supports our life. 

This ranch, by it's nature requires an honoring of the rhythm and cycle of life.  I don't think my sister needs reminded by the full moon to birth her visions, and let go of the ones that have languished.  Being here, though has caused me to deeply reflect upon what I am call to birth and to release, and in this fifth cycle of the year, the cycle invites us to listen for what is being said beyond the spoken word and honor and care for ourselves as sacred beings.