Today's Medicine: Release and Reflection

I've started dubbing the 7th day of the week as Simple Saturday. I'm doing my best to remember to Keep It Simple, Silly. I baked today, which always brings me pleasure. It's especially wonderful when I try out a new recipe and it turns out well. Today's experiment was a cardamom (or cardamon, depending on your spelling) coffee cake, taken from an old recipe book given to my mother from her mother. I've already decided it will go into my personal recipe book and I can see how tweaking it a bit could produce some other delicious things, like a lemon blueberry coffee cake. Yum.

Release actually came through late last night, as I was reading Frank MacEowen's "The Celtic Way of Seeing: Meditations on the Irish Spirit Wheel." In talking about the center of the wheel, he uses a quote from the poet David Whyte: "Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you." I love it when quotes stop me in my tracks. I immediately looked around my bathroom, for I was in the bath when this stunning epiphany happened, and started looking at the things around me. I immediately discovered at least 10 things which fell into the "too small" category and grinned to myself. There things that clearly mattered quite a lot to me and this revelation helped me see them with different eyes. As soon as I got out of the bath I started filling a box with those things I no longer felt were necessary. And I continued that practice as I puttered around the house throughout the day today. It was intriguing to see the things I was willing to release and to notice the non-negotiable items. I am curious to see where this process leads.

Reflection came to me on many levels. Since Paul and Michele were both out and about today, I decided to do some smudging and clearing of our home. I can do this when they are here but I find I am more likely to do the work if I don't feel like I'm imposing on them or have their energies in the mix. I like to do a smudging during the week or so after a full moon, to sweep the slate clean and set the energy of our home back to a lighter place. I realized that even though I consider myself more of a spiritual being than the average person, I don't always remember how helpful it is to burn sage, cedar and copal. It seems to me that I really ought to practice it on a regular basis instead of putting it off until I think I really need it. I realized that it's just another practice of preventive care. It makes sense to clear myself of heavy energy on a regular basis instead of waiting until I feel so down that I can't hardly stand myself. I also found it interesting that I was reminded yet again that practicing preventive care, whether it be in health, spiritual or financial matters, has always been difficult for me. At least until the Universe slaps me down and then I finally figure out what I'm supposed to be learning in the first place...