This has been a year of really being mindful of the steps on my path, and tonight brings me to another New Moon intention to set. This year I’ve moved through self-awareness, self-discovery, self-forgiveness, self-determination, self-expression – and with this cycle I move to self-improvement. I have a better sense of myself, my strengths, and limitations and I feel like I have some degree of self-determination and that I’m developing the skills to express it. So now, how to improve by building on all of that. The enlightenment I hope to get from the Greece trip feels like a great first step!!

This afternoon brings another New Moon, and my evolutionary journey through 2017 continues – each new moon brings a different facet of myself to pay attention to or work on. January was self-awareness, February was self-discovery, March was self-forgiveness, and April was self-determination. Interesting that about half-way through self-determination my mother passed away.

I was involved in a very powerful and personally profound healing ritual at the retreat over the weekend. Building on the themes that it uncovered, this lunar cycle’s work will revolve around self-expression. I’m not sure what form that will take yet – but we learn as we go!

Every new moon I pick a new topic to reflect on. In January it was self-awareness, February was self-discovery, and March was self-forgiveness. I really had planned on this new moon being about something else… but it’s just not time for that yet. Instead, this cycle will be about self-determination.

There are times in our lives where we act against our own best interests – we do things that inadvertently hurt ourselves or others – but good or bad, we always have a choice. Over the next few weeks I want to try to be more mindful of those cusps and try to lean toward nurturing and fulfillment – not just for myself but for those around me as well.

For the past few months I’ve been working on different areas of self-improvement. First was self-awareness, then self-discovery, and right now I’m in the middle of exercises in self-forgiveness. That can take on many forms, but it begins with understanding one’s need for forgiveness in the first place.

With time to reflect today, I returned to the Buddhist concept of Shenpa and decided I wanted to see what more I could read about it – because that Shenpa, or attachment, seems like it sits at the heart of my being too hard on myself. When I did a search today, I found an article published just this past Friday from Pema Chödrön – a Buddhist voice I respect very much. The timing and synergy suggested it was important to share this.… More...

During the past lunar cycle I focused on self-acceptance. Three days after the last new moon I was in the accident and spent the rest of the lunar cycle forced to do little else but accept each moment as it came. It was interesting to “watch” my brain recover from the concussion and accept that each moment was as it should be.

I ended that period of acceptance by acknowledging that I had a role to play in affecting change and spent the last few minutes of the cycle, combined with the solar eclipse, focusing on letting go of that which does not serve me. Part of this references the “thermal exhaust port” post from the Friday.

With the new moon I start a new cycle, and this time I’m choosing to move from self-acceptance to self-discovery.… More...

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more…”

I’m back online now.

There are battles to be fought, and wars to be won.

This past Friday’s New Moon brought a vow to focus on the work of self-acceptance – both personally and professionally. This follows the teachings of Sun Tzu who said “So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be put at risk even in a hundred battles.” – it must begin with self-acceptance.