How do you feel about the changing season?

I find there is such an array of feelings about this time, some are welcoming the cooler temps as an opportunity to hunker down, get cozy, and rest more. Some are grieving the loss of sun-soaked days and the energy it gives, and I think many of us carry a mix of those feelings.

this note offers a list of rituals to partake in to honour this seasonal shift, and observe this moment in ourselves.

I’ve found that the realm of spirituality is actually quite expansive, and surprising!

We can make meaning from the simplest of life’s moments. I have often been surprised by the “mundane” revealing deep spiritual insight.

This note is just that, my surprise at being inspired by my cat.

As we sink into the fullness of summer, do you feel your body pulling you towards play?

The summer is half over, and every year at this time I sense a tangible shift. A kind of urgency comes over us, a desire not to miss out on summer’s distinctive energy. Summer brings a unique creativity, a feeling of fun, abundance, a spirit of pleasure and risk taking. Summer begs us to play!

June has a tendency to be a busy, almost overwhelming month for me, filled with reminders of the many social justice issues still requiring our energy and work. Being reminded afresh with new stories of all the injustices in the world takes its toll. In the last few years, I have found that June has become an exhausting ball of communication for me to untangle. Maybe you can relate?

There has been a harshness, isolation, a sense of being cooped up for too long, a forced extended hibernation. This time of living smaller led to many of us looking internally, spending time investigating our patterns, our habits. As I pondered for myself what I need at this time, the word bloom keeps coming back to me. I’m sensing in my spirit a time for blooming. A time perhaps, to slow down the digging and allow ourselves to feel the freshness. To feel the life around us, and to open up and receive.

Can you relate to that feeling of being meant to do something? As if there is this burning urge within you that cannot be ignored?

As I felt my urge to dig into the mysterious depths, I searched for the right archetypal name to describe this part of me. I considered different names and was suggested to look at the mermaid…

I’ve learned that this name, Martyr, isn't inherently wrong or bad. Its roots lie in the word witness, meaning a willingness to proceed because of a higher cause or truth despite the risk of sacrifice. Healthy martyrdom revolves around sacrifice by CHOICE, which opens the martyr to receive as well as to give.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the names that I have carried. Some I wear like a badge of honour, while others feel almost like stains that I scrub and scrub away at, but can never fully remove.

My feeling as of late is that we all need a little more embrace. While this might be as simple and straightforward as needing a little more physical embracing, I can also see the many layers of ourselves and our beings that are crying out to be embraced.

I’ve always been wary of the new year’s trend: committing to resolutions promising a fully polished, more productive, brand new version of yourself. It just doesn’t seem realistic, or healthy, to be honest.

But I can’t quite bypass the reflective energy of this time, there is something about the evaluation space we find ourselves in, at the New Year. We've slowed ourselves down long enough to reflect on the past year, and begin to notice some things we may want to do differently…

We cross small thresholds continually, consciously and unconsciously.