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The promise of a new beginning…
Thursday, November 7 was Samhain in the Northern Hemisphere. It is energetic New Year based on the cycles of the moon. This is always a good time for reflection. This last year has seemed particularly challenging. Some of the challenges brought exceptional joy and success. Some brought grief and loss. Personally, I feel like I birthed myself over and over, breech every time and always through the eye of the needle.
There is a saying about sliding into your death exhausted and happy. This last year was great practice for that time. (Hopefully, the actual slide is a long way off.) Now that I have miraculously made it to this point, I know the bruises and bloody thigh will heal. And, I will get a lot of sleep -- sometime.
For now, I want to look forward and focus on what is in my heart. Fortunately I can feel the juices of creativity beginning to bubble up. Creativity is such a wild thing, difficult to harness and yet critical to our sense of well being. In this moment, this aspect of life force still feels young and unstable. Patience and a sense of humor will be required to manifest something of worth and form.
With creativity awakening, the next questions are, “What do I choose for this new year?” “What adventures feel right to take on?” I am always looking for a challenge, growth and expansion. Perhaps too much, but then, I am a Gemini with a gypsy heart and a curious mind. I love the feeling of a new beginning, an opportunity to try something outside my comfort zone. The next few days will be about feeling my way through all the choices until the right quest falls into place. Is it finally a trip to Europe or a long drive through this Southern land or something I haven’t yet imagined?
New Year is also a chance to fall in love again – with everything. I walked around my home Samhain morning and felt each room. I was present with each adornment, remembered the circumstance of its arrival and what it meant to me. There is a charcoal of a sailboat above my sofa that was a trade with a wonderful, internationally known artist. I remember standing in his studio looking at every piece, excited, overjoyed and in love with each drawing, each painting. I was homesick for San Francisco and chose a simple charcoal because it made me smile and reminded me of sailing on the Bay.
I did the same with every piece of furniture. There are beautiful white bookcases in my office that friends went significantly out of their way to buy and deliver to my home many hours drive from theirs. Another friend painstakingly put them together. There is a lot of love, effort and shared power in those bookcases. I stood and cried with deep appreciation for the kindness and generosity in my life.
Before my journey with new eyes, I stood and soaked in the light changing on the pond at sunrise. My world went from hushed darkness and invisibility to a sense of being part of something greater. Sounds drifted across my New Year. Someone was already swinging a hammer improving the world. Two duck couples were gliding across the still water – do they ever sleep…Lights came on in the other homes. My guess - I wasn’t the only one with a cup of coffee in my hand. My sacred hiddenness melted into light and sound with heady and meaningful fragrances of my world.
I moved into this New Year belonging – present - with love and affirmation of life. Blessings for your new beginning.
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Cook Once, Eat Twice is a new cookbook by Tracee Yablon-Brenner that makes it easier to get delicious meals on the table twice! Once you are in the kitchen it makes sense to prep another meal. Tracee is a culinary nutritionist who works from the foundation that food is medicine. She takes a lifestyle approach with the mind-body-spirit connection with her coaching clients. Reach her, find great recipes, more cookbooks and her new radio show at 
