TELL ME, HOW DO YOU FEEL THIS SEASON?

—Apprenticeship to Love: Daily Meditation, Inspirations, and Practices for Authentic Relationships, September 5, 2023

• Today’s question: There is a seasonal shift, can you feel it? How do you feel it? Where in your body? I want to know. 

• Today's suggested practice: Day 2 of this month's practice, to practice to receive (see my "Short Practice to Receive,” below)

• My practice today: 3:30am: 60 minutes: Yogic postures, Heart Hum meditaiton.

• My vulnerability practice: Recognizing it, the beginnings of something. Familiar. A little frightening: what comes? And, welcoming it...

TODAY'S MEDITATION: ON RECEIVING

Now things begin in earnest. Everything rushing towards those Rauhnächte —the deepest, darkest, most profound days of my year, when everything is undone.

It begins now. All of it. A slow beginning that becomes a headlong rush into the dark unknown of Her underworld.

I'm not feeling it, particularly, today. The smells of autumn are here. The garden, fading slowly into gold. The wind stirring the drying leaves, gently lifting and dancing those that are ready for the fall, to fall.

I'm not feeling it today. But the memories are powerful and not to be neglected.

My year begins here. Now. In this, the beginning of the end.

...

And so I am asking you, in earnest, dear reader. And I want to know, Do you begin your beginning with the appointed turning of the calendar at the end of December? Or is it another date or season that stirs you to come undone, to receive? 

And how do you feel this moment, this turning of summer into the long darkening into winter.

I want to know. 

And I invite you to Zoom me at sacredbodies.ca/chat 

Or leave a comment here.

Or email me at hans@sacredbodies.ca 

I do want to know.

…

Let me ask again: 

Do you experience season shifts? 

Do you feel this late-summer-into-fall in a particular way? 

And, what do you *do* with these feelings? Are they welcome, or are they foreboding?

...

I am curious, and I've asked my beloved, who so rarely responds to direct questions (they are, for her, to much like an inquisition, the wrong kind of penetration, the wrong kind of experience of my presence). So I ask, without expectations, knowing that in some other time there will be a response that I'm not expecting or knowing exactly what to do with. 

...

Have I said this? It's a powerful time of year for me. It begins after my birthday, always less than it seems to mean, and comes to head in the very early new year. 

The rest of it, the months that come after and before, are less clear to me. Mostly I experience them as the time of somehow coming to grips with what happens in these next few weeks. 

Yes, I’m curious what you feel, if anything, in these weeks & months. Are they somehow marked differently from the rest of your year. 

Tell me. I'm listening. It is a time of deep listening for me. 

TODAY’S INSPIRATIONS

🌀 All in all, this is a labyrinth of curiosities, discoveries, decisions, efforts, relaxations, rememberings, failures, forgiveness, successes, and celebrations. The “asleepness-comas” are seemingly endless and the awakening process is a re-cognition of the absolute light of the soul. Looking backward creates a desperate sense. Looking forward can sometimes cause the same. (Guru Singh & Guruperkarma Kaur)

🌀The moment we demand to be assured, to be certain, the very demand for that certainty breeds fear. (Krishnamurti)

🌀Sex becomes sacred when our desires are sacrificed on the altar of love. (Justin Patrick Pierce)

🌀You’re not like that now. (My beloved, my Oracle & Siren)

TODAY'S SUGGESTED PRACTICE

Day 5 of this month's practice, to receive:

Please read through first, then ...

- Today, set two alarms, one for the early part of your day, one for mid-late afternoon when you may be feeling low energy.

- When the alarm sounds, wherever and however you are, take three, five, 11, or 30 minutes to do this short practice:

- When you’re done, sit or stand for another minute or two, breathing gently, slowly filling and emptying your belly. Here, as you breathe into your fullness, ask yourself, Do I feel a seasonal shift? How do I feel it? Where in my body? Can I relax and receive all that it brings me? 

- Notice if your body-mind feels somehow changed. And whether you notice a change or not, be content with yourself, exactly as you are in this moment.

- Continue with your day until the next alarm sounds, and repeat.

If you want to talk about your experience, or your resistance, or about anything, please set up a short (15-minute) chat for Zoom: sacredbodies.ca/chat.

It may not be enough, but it'll be a start. And a start is always a good thing.