I have a question for you.
How do you wake up every morning?
Like, exactly.
Do you use an alarm, or not?
Do you stay with your dreams for awhile? Do you write them down?
Do you linger in bed, or do you jump up and get to it?
I’m asking because your answer will reveal a lot.
How you do anything is how you do everything, as they say.
But first, let’s get oriented, especially since its been awhile since we’ve touched base with each other.
We’re coming out of The Dreaming, the sacred season of rest, defined by Winter Solstice.
We’ve allowed parts of ourselves to hibernate, inspired by the dreaming bears snug in their dens.
I, for example, rested facilitation, teaching, and outreach (like this ‘gram).
But now, we’re not quite in the Dreaming anymore. We’re in a more nuanced place.
If Winter Solstice is The Dreaming, then we’re now in The Stirring.
It’s time to stir awake.
We’re stirring because the light of the year is growing and guiding us toward our next sacred season, Imbolc.
The light of the year is just like the light of the day.
Imbolc feels like the gossamer grey of a wintery dawn; frost laden and silhouetted by the outline of branches.
It’s a sweet time of day; it’s gentle.
And so, this is a gentle time of year, perfect for stirring awake.
So real quick, let’s look at the difference in stirring sweetly awake in early February versus setting off fireworks on January first.
Yeah.
Like, would you love it if someone set off fireworks in your yard at about 3 am?
That’s about how aligned setting off fireworks and partying on Jan 1 is.
I mean, no shade here, party people.
I’m just pointing out that there’s an alternative, a potentially kinder scenario by which to treat your beautiful being, your incredible psyche that has been aligned with the rotation of the planet far longer than a fireworks schedule.
So back to the question I asked you: how do you wake up?
Back to how you do anything is how you do everything.
Pausing to take note of how you wake up every day will help you understand the best yearly wake up ritual for you.
If you spring outta bed and only sleep a few hours each night, then those fireworks and resolutions on Jan 1 might be perfect for you.
But if you’re anything like me, then you’re more aligned with deep rest, gentle stirring, and coming “back online” now instead.
So here’s how I wake up.
Before I come back into my conscious brain, I seesaw in liminal space, allowing the territories of my brain to interface awhile.
I open my eyes with a soft focus, then close them again.
I move my body, but only a little.
Eventually I open my eyes and stare out the windows.
I stare for a good long while.
These days I’ve been staring at Venus, the Morning Star, just over the eastern ridge.
I stretch and massage my joints before I get out of my bed.
How I stir and wake up everyday tells me how to stir and wake up to the year.
Same for you.
If you wake up each day with some gentleness, then ease into the year with gentleness too.
But what if you’re like yeah yeah Katie that sounds great but that’s not my reality.
Totally. I get it.
If your cool with your own version of waking up, then awesome. Rock on.
But if you want to wake up each morning with gentleness, then you reverse engineer this scenario and work from the outside in.
Here’s what I mean.
Bring that gentle pace into the next couple of weeks to directly influence then change the pace of your mornings.
I promise.
Deep, subtle workings like that is how we evoke change in our lives.
We find the nearest rhythm and start there.
The rhythms being daily, monthly, yearly, etc.
So your daily rhythm can help you understand and/or change your yearly behavior.
And your yearly behavior can help you understand and/or change your daily rhythms.
As a Wheel-walker and mystic, you’re interested in momentum.
You want to harness yourself to the momentum of nature to go farther and deeper without wearing yourself out.
Farther and deeper to honor your personal evolution and ultimate contribution to the world — your Work.
And without wearing yourself out so you have energy for your Work.
The momentum right now is around stirring.
It’s not time to rise and shine yet.
It’s only time to stir.
Sacred stirring.
What in your psyche is ready for some movement, action, liminal seesawing?
Gift yourself time to stir that awake.
‘Tis the season.
love & stirring,
kv
