Since June, food has been in the forefront of my thoughts. First, there was the trip to Italy in the second half of June where my mom, my sister and I savored the wonderful delights of Northern Italian cuisine–my clothes still don’t quite fit as they should… Many of the foods, and the ways in which they were prepared, reminded us of long-ago traditional family dinners.

Then, there was the wonderful birthday cake I created for my twin daughters’ birthday in early July. Taking both girls’ ideas and talking about how to combine their individual wishes, we created a three-layer cheesecake for their birthday. Our collaboration became a layer of flourless chocolate cake, followed by a layer of plain cheesecake, and finished with a creamy, gooey, peanut butter topping. It was a hit, even though we acknowledged that we’ll need to make some adjustments for size the next time we make it. A significant memory of their 15th birthday was created that day.

This past week, my mind has been on identifying calcium-rich foods and recipes for my mom–foods to increase the chances that her bone fractures heal.

Two weeks ago, however, my focus was on the food I would serve my adult daughter and her family during their eight-day stay with us. In addition to considerations for what my grandchildren’s preferences were, I had to calculate the preparation of food for twice as many people! What I hadn’t considered–and what unfolded during the course of the week–was my realization that food can be the loving glue securing or repairing personal relationships.

My daughter left home to live with her father and his family when she was 14 years old, feeling the need to break away from what she considered to be my maternal hold on her. That was 21 years ago. Throughout the subsequent years, our relationship has been challenged by both physical and emotional distance. During her visit–the longest amount of time we’ve spent together in ten years–my daughter and I reconnected in ways I never dreamed possible.

Much of our reconnecting was through the food I prepared and served. For instance, knowing that Amanda always loved our family’s spaghetti sauce, and that every member of my family has always loved walking into a house and being greeted by that familiar smell, I began preparing it the morning of their anticipated arrival. As predicted, she entered our house–a home in a state she’d never before visited–and immediately welled up with tears, mostly because we were seeing each other for the first time in almost four years. Additionally, though, she was transported back to the days when she’d enter our home and smell that I was in the midst of preparing that same sauce. Our first night together, here in Colorado, gave her the opportunity to re-experience one of her childhood delights and share one of our traditional family meals with her husband and children.

As the week progressed, I prepared surprises such as the homemade waffles eaten in our home since the days when my grandmother would visit my childhood home and make them for me and my sister. It was our ritual: Nonna would come for a week’s stay and make waffles for my sister and me in the morning. We all knew those waffles were a required ingredient for her visit. Nonna taught me and my sister how to eat them as little finger sandwiches, with only melted butter in between the two layers. When we had our second helping (there was always a second helping), we would all add strawberry jam to the layers–Nonna’s favorite jam.

On “waffle morning,” during Amanda’s stay, she readied to eat her waffles, showing her children and husband how she’d eaten them as a child. I realized I had passed on my grandmother’s tradition–there she was eating her buttered finger sandwich waffles!

One morning as we prepared a different breakfast together, she and I reminisced about other foods and meals she remembered. As I listened, I realized that no matter how far apart we had been, the foods I’d prepared had stayed with her, along with the nurturing love I’d folded in. As her husband said, each meal was especially wonderful because it was made with love.

When I think back on our life together, I usually remember the most challenging and difficult moments first. One of the many gifts I received during Amanda’s visit was the realization that she and I share a history filled with much love and caring. She showed me that what she carries in her heart are the many experiences of that deep, binding love. Our hearts have been and forever will be connected to each other–glued together by the foods passed down through past generations and cemented together by a lifetime of memories and experiences.

Before the week was over I discovered another gift through creating a few new dishes together. I saw how the new creations reflected the changes that have come about for each of us during our years away from each other. I am grateful that as we move forward, we have no need to cling desperately to the past. Instead, we can continue to grow and evolve, adding new traditions and memories to our family’s rich history. All glued together by the love that continues to grow and evolve as well.

In the past few years, I have connected with women who are mothers grieving over the loss of a child, whether through death or by some other means.

One woman, who I met a few years ago in Greece, lives there on a beautiful island. Her adult son died in 1997, and she carries her sadness with her every day of each passing year. Her full cup of sorrow is a part of her daily living.

Another woman is a friend who lives nearby. Her 2-1/2 year-old son died tragically in late 2008. She too grieves and carries her sadness with her each and every day, along with the child she now carries in her womb.

I met another woman at one of my workshops who had just returned from a long period of lobbying in Washington, DC on behalf of funding for childhood cancer research. One of her toddler-aged twin daughters had died the previous year. Her story touched me deeply as I returned home to my beautiful teenage twin daughters.

And then there’s my Buddhist friend whose 29 year-old son was on trial for murder earlier this month. He’s been found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and awaits sentencing. She too grieves the loss of her child, who will be forever changed by the past events as well as those awaiting him.

Lastly, I recently learned of a friend whose adult daughter died just two months ago. Her grief is a fresh, wide-open wound.

Not having experienced anything even remotely similar to what these five women have gone through, I find it difficult to know what to say or how to support them. Each is in a different phase of grief and each has experienced a unique loss. Yet, what they all share is an empty place inside themselves that will never again be filled by their loved ones–a hole that will forever remain void of the one who is missing.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about these women, especially since Mother’s Day. Two of them wrote beautiful prose about their loss and their grief. Beautiful and heart-wrenching. Joyful memories and painful awareness. Deep, deep, profound sorrow and loss.

All I can offer today is the love that pours from my heart. I send it out in light to surround each of these courageous, amazing women, who go on each day to love the others in their lives and share joy and hope and inspiration with all whom they touch.

I found a beautiful piece of writing by one of my favorite authors, Anne Lamott, and post it here for everyone–mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, friend, acquaintance–anyone who has lost someone they loved deeply. May your days be filled with glorious light and your nights filled with protective darkness. May you be comforted by all that surrounds you, seen and unseen. May you be blessed with peacefulness in your lifetime.

“You will lose someone you can’t live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” Anne Lamott

In light and love!

Today is the day we honor the mothers in our lives–those women who gave birth to us as well as women who have held us up during our lives. We also honor and remember the mothers of mothers–all those women who came before us, who are part of our lineage. We may do this in a multitude of ways–phone calls, flowers, cards, special meals together for those whose mothers are living. For those whose mothers have passed on, we may honor them by visiting their resting place or lighting candles or finding other ways to remember and commemorate their lives. By all means, please do honor the women who have been significant in your life–today and on other days as well!

Today is also a perfect opportunity to honor the mother of us all–Mother Earth. Hildegard of Bingen, a Christian mystic who lived in the twelfth century, whose philosophy bridges science, art and religion, was a great lover of nature. She believed that nature was the truest mirror of divine creation. She said, “The earth is at the same time mother, she is mother of all that is natural, mother of all that is human. She is the mother of all, for contained in her are the seeds of all. The earth of humankind contains all moistness, all verdancy, all germinating power. It is in so many ways fruitful. All creation comes from it.”

Mother Earth is the Great Mother of all life on this planet and the sustainer of our very life force. It’s good to frequently honor her as well. Again, there are so many ways we can do this. Spending time in nature where we can connect with the many aspects of Mother Earth–in places where there are plenty of trees, grasses, plants, and maybe even water to connect with. We can take this opportunity to contemplate how we can create in our lives practices to implement which are more environmentally friendly. We can choose to plant flowers, plants or trees to bring more life into the world.

Today, May 9th, there are other opportunities for offering healing to Mother Earth through worldwide events. For Mother Earth, www.theintentionexperment.com has posted the opportunity to send a big intention to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, which is occurring unabated after the April 20th explosion, and for all efforts to work and contain the spill, with minimum impact on the ecosystem of the seas. At 5:00 PM GMT, you can participate by sending the following intention into the world: “My intention is for the Deepwater Horizon’s oil leak to be immediately and successfully contained with no damage to the environment.”

Another world event is Standing Women. On Naomi Wolf’s Standing Women Facebook page, she shares, “In 2007, Standing Women launched its campaign inspired by Sharon Mehdi’s story to her granddaughter about the Great Silent Grandmother Gathering. They asked that women stand together in silence for a better world at 1 pm on the second Sunday in May, which is Mothers’ Day in the United States. Almost 4000 “standing locations” were listed from 81 nations, including 876 organizations.

Please take a moment and go to http://www.standingwomen.org. Register the place where you will stand for a better world. Others in your area will be able to find you.”

So as we share today with our mothers near and far, living and deceased, may we also find ways to unite with the world in bringing healing and standing up for a better world for all, now and in the future.

Happy Mother’s Day!

As we move closer to Earth Day 2010, I decided to return to watching as many films and read as much as I can about the food industry to better understand the sources of the mainstay of our available food. Most recently, I watched “King Corn.” Even though this film is not my first exposure to this kind of information, it has left me saddened and concerned.

Realizing that the generations which came before me had a longer life expectancy than the generations coming after me is troubling. “How can that be,” you might ask, “with all the modern conveniences, technology and advances in medicine?” Sadly, many of the “advancements” have led to inhumane raising of animals in order to bring more meat to market quicker, toxins are pumped into the ground in order to raise larger, bigger yielding crops, and government subsidies are given in order to convince farmers to produce industrialized crops. In addition, high fructose corn syrup is added to everything from crackers to cans of soda. Obesity and diabetes are on the rise at staggering rates of increase. Previous generations spent more than half their earnings on food–today, on average, we spend less than 20% of our earnings on food. We are being conditioned to believe that the abundance of choices and the decreased cost represents improvements in the quality of life; yet, the quality of what we’re actually getting is significantly more inferior to what was available to our grandparents and great-grandparents.

In order to produce larger quantities (unprecedented quantities) more cheaply, industrialized food production has taken the soul out of the growing and raising of food. All the food my grandparents and great-grandparents ate had soul–contained in everything was the sweat and heart of the people who grew the produce and raised the livestock. The food itself was respected. Today, in order to survive, the majority of farmers and ranchers must sell their souls and turn away from the values and beliefs of their ancestors. In turn, the soul of the food itself is being ignored and denied. For many, it’s just too painful to look deeply at what is occurring.

For today, I leave you with data pulled from the King Corn website:

*America’s ability to produce bumper corn crops has translated into a food system awash in high fructose corn syrup and fatty, corn-fed beef.
*Every five to seven years, the US government reauthorizes the farm bill, a complex and powerful piece of legislation that makes an impact on our food system in a wide variety of ways: environmentally, commercially, agriculturally, and economically. Originally developed by Roosevelt’s Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, the farm bill has grown to include a range of considerations, from commodity farming and rural development to the school lunch program and biofuel development.
*Less than $1 million was spent to promote the 3,700 farmers markets in the United States in 2005, while $9.4 billion was paid to corn farmers. (Source: Imhoff, Daniel, Food Fight, (Healdsburg, CA: Watershed Media), 2007, p. 92; The Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org.)
*More than $50 billion was paid to corn farmers in the past decade. (Source: The Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org; the United States Department of Agriculture, www.usda.gov.)
*Over the past three decades, consumption of high fructose corn syrup has increased 1,000 percent. (Source: Imhoff, Daniel, Food Fight, (Healdsburg, CA: Watershed Media), 2007, p. 92.)
*Soft drink consumption has more than doubled since 1971. The average teenage boy drinks two 12-ounce sodas per day. That’s more than 700 cans per year! The average teenage girls drinks 1.4 12-ounce sodas per day, amounting to more than 500 cans per year. (Source: The Center for Science in the Public Interest, Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks are Harming America’s Health, www.cspinet.org/liquidcandy.)
*The prevalence of obesity has quadrupled over the last 25 years among children between 6 and 11 years old. It’s doubled over the last 25 years among adolescents aged 12 to 19.5 years old. (Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the National Center for Health Statistics.)
*As Dan Imhoff points out in his book Food Fight, of the 15,000 new food products brought to market every year, 75% are candies, condiments, breakfast cereals, baked goods, beverages or dairy novelties. (Source: Imhoff, Daniel, Food Fight, (Healdsburg, CA: Watershed Media), 2007, p. 91, citing Mark Muller and Heather Schoonover in Food Without Thought: How US Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity, (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy), 2006, p. 7.)
*Between 1985 and 2000, the real price of fruits and vegetables increased by 40%, while prices for soft drinks decreased by 24%. (Source: Pothukuchi, Karni, The Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) June 11, 2007; United States Department of Agriculture, www.usda.gov.)
*Between 2003 and 2005, 66% of crop subsidies went to 10% of farmers. (Source: The Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org; The United States Department of Agriculture, www.usda.gov.)
*Between 1997 and 2005, the industrial broiler chicken industry saved $11.25 billion, and the industrial hog industry saved $8.5 billion from farm-bill policies that kept corn and soybean prices below the cost of production. (Source: The Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University, Industrial Livestock Companies’ Gains from Low Feed Prices, 1997-2005, http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/CompanyFeedSvgsFeb07.pdf.)

An event which started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 has turned into a worldwide phenomenon!

Yesterday, March 27th, at 8:30 PM local time, the fourth EARTH HOUR occurred all around the globe. An estimated one billion people participated in Earth Hour this year–new countries joined, and in some places, the event included a period of silence and even parades. In just three years’ time, individuals, businesses, municipalities, and historic landmarks worldwide have joined together to call for action. Climate change must be addressed. By doing something as simple as turning off our lights worldwide for one hour, “we show that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact . . . in protecting our future and that of future generations,” as stated on the Earth Hour website. Go to this Earth Hour link to view photos of the lights going out around the world–it’s incredible!

This event got me thinking: what if, in addition to this annual event, we all turned off our lights for extended periods of time every night or even once a week or once a month? Not only are we conserving energy by doing so, but we have wonderful opportunities to connect with our families and nature each time we do it. Eating by candlelight is intimate and calming. Taking the opportunity to look outside and see the bright stars shining is inspiring. Once the brightness of building lights is dimmed, the stars can actually reach out to us!

Keeping our lights off for at least an hour is so simple AND it benefits us greatly! Lighting is responsible for about 11 percent of a home’s energy bills, and those continue to march up across most of the United States, at a time when home prices have been falling and job growth is soft. A compact fluorescent bulb uses about 75 percent less electricity than an incandescent, but the most energy-saving bulb of all is one that’s turned off! If we are using incandescent lights in our houses, only about 10%–15% of the electricity that incandescent lights consume results in light—the rest is turned into heat. If we use fluorescent lights, turning them off for a longer period of time is the only effective way to save energy. As a rule of thumb, to save energy and cost, fluorescent lights need to be off for more than 15 minutes at a time. So, turning off any type of light bulb for extended periods of time makes sense and save cents!

Think about the impact we each can make. If every one of us takes the example of Sydney, Australia to see that one city’s action has impacted the world, what can our one action in our own home do for ourselves, our neighborhoods and our cities?

Food for thought on a Soulful Sunday…

I feel so loved today!! Today started in our home with kisses, hugs, homemade cards, and little special gifts–a few chocolates for my daughters and my husband and a beautiful leather journal made in Italy for me (as a writer, I was deeply touched to receive such a beautiful gift from my husband). Aside from the gift-giving, which we are fortunate enough to be able to do, as I journaled and meditated this morning, I contemplated how important it is to open our hearts to loving ourselves and then to spread that love outwards to the people in our lives and beyond.

One of the best ways to send out love is through the Buddhist spiritual practice of Metta–lovingkindness meditation. At this time of year, it is such a special practice to incorporate.

There is a progression to this practice that makes it easy to build upon. It’s a series of steps that starts with ourselves and continues to move outward, further away from our inner circle. You begin with yourself and focus on loving YOU until you are ready to move outward–as you move outward, always begin with yourself and then move to the next “rung on the ladder.” As you repeat the blessing, see yourself and the others in your mind’s eye. You can visualize them in whichever way helps you with blessing them (including yourself, of course)–white light around them, inside an egg filled with light, angels surrounding them, or whatever makes you feel comfortable. Here are the series of steps that I practice in my own life.

I first begin with myself, repeating the following lovingkindness blessings for myself:

May I be at peace, May my heart remain open,
May I awaken to the light of my own true nature,
May I be healed, May I be a source of healing for all beings.

Sometimes, I stay with myself for a day or series of days. It depends on how I am feeling. Next, I extend blessings to my loved ones. Sometimes it’s just one loved one; other times it’s my entire family, thinking of them one member at a time.

May you be at peace, May your heart remain open,
May you awaken to the light of your own true nature,
May you be healed, May you be a source of healing for all beings.

Feel free to repeat these blessings for yourself and your loved ones as often as you wish throughout the day. If you are experiencing worry or fear for yourself or any of your loved ones, this is an especially wonderful lovingkindness blessing to repeat and use to replace that fearful thought with thoughts of love. I find that when I repeat this blessing for myself or others during days when something worrisome is on my mind, I am able to release that worry and anxiety.

The third step of Metta is a bit more challenging. This is the opportunity to extend blessings to those who might be a little or a lot difficult to love. I start with those that are just a little difficult to love first, then move to the more difficult ones. Again, the lovingkindness blessing starts with myself, then my loved one(s), and next those more challenging individuals. The blessing is the same:

May you be at peace, May your heart remain open,
May you awaken to the light of your own true nature,
May you be healed, May you be a source of healing for all beings.

The last step of Metta is to think of a group of people that our hearts go out to. Rather than feel helpless about the plight of this group–whoever they may be–we can take action on two different levels. The outer level can be to get politically and socially active, give money to alleviate some of their suffering, and teach our children to be loving, generous, and respectful. The inner level is to practice Metta and send blessings to this group that our heart reaches out to. Again, after blessing myself, my loved one(s), those difficult individual(s) in my life, I then extend my lovingkindness to that group of people my heart already goes out to. I find that the group is not always the same. Depending on what is happening in life–such as the current Haitian crisis–or my own personal experiences, the group is whichever I am focused on:

May you be at peace, May your heart remain open,
May you awaken to the light of your own true nature,
May you be healed, May you be a source of healing for all beings.

I wish you love and blessings as you open your heart to yourself and others. Happy Valentine’s Day! Open your heart today, love and be loved today and always!

I came across this video yesterday and couldn’t think of a better way to honor Soulful Sunday. Make the best of your Sunday and the week ahead. Savor every moment with your whole heart and soul–you’ll soon discover that it’s truly a bellisima life!

Every year in November, we in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving–the day to give thanks for the abundance in our lives. We share it with our families and close friends around a table of food reflecting Mother Earth’s abundance as well as our own bountiful lives. Additionally, many people bring focus throughout the entire month of November to the attitude of gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is “like a gearshift that can move your mental mechanism from obsession to peacefulness, from rigidity to creativity, from fear to love. The ability to relax and be mindfully present in the moment comes naturally when you’re grateful,” according to Dr. Joan Borysenko in Inner Peace for Busy People. Having an attitude of gratitude, as I learned long ago in a 12-step recovery program, is the key to feeling joy in our lives.

When we are grateful, there is no room for feeling lack or despair, worry or fear. It’s impossible to feel fear and gratitude at the same time! When we are grateful, we are dialed into the abundance in our lives. We are able to see the glass half full rather than half empty. We are focused on what is rather than what is not. We are in the glorious present moment! If we live in our heads, we are usually in the past (where regrets may reside) or in the future (where fears and longings may be). But when we’re in the glorious present, we’re living from our hearts where gratitude dwells.

It’s easy to feel gratitude when everything seems to be going right in our lives. But what about those times when we are struggling with present-moment challenges? During those times, according to Jack Canfield in the Key to Living the Law of Attraction, it’s important to “try to be grateful for even the difficult and challenging situations that arise. It is often through these situations that we experience the most profound spiritual and emotional growth. You can learn to view each apparent obstacle as an opportunity to develop a new quality, strength, skill, insight, or wisdom and be grateful for the lessons. Each and every challenge is another opportunity for growth and expansion. Rise to these occasions, and appreciate all that you are learning in the process. Keeping your attitude positive and appreciative through these times will not only help to avoid attracting more of these difficult situations into your life–it will also create a field of positive energy that will attract more of what you do want.”

When I experienced breast cancer in 2007, I initially could not find anything for which to feel gratitude–I most definitely was not grateful for the disease in my life. However, as time passed, I was able to see that because of this difficult time in my life, I grew in courage and strength, learned many things, and had many experiences that otherwise would never have happened. The wisdom and learnings I’ve experienced, the relationships I have formed, and the life path I am now on are all a result of this profound event in my life. Today, I am overflowing with gratitude for where I am today.

There are various tools and techniques that can help bring you to an attitude of gratitude. Here is a list of a few of those ideas that can increase your gratitude awareness:

1. Carry a small token, stone, crystal or some other meaningful object with you each day in your pocket or some place that you can easily access. Throughout the day, each time you reach into that place, you’ll have a tangible reminder to stop and think of something to be grateful for. As you hold or touch your small object, take a moment to breathe and really feel the emotion of gratitude.

2. Anytime you feel yourself “awfulizing” about your life or events in your life, try focusing on all the things that are right in your life. This will bring you immediately to a feeling of gratitude.

3. Start keeping a daily gratitude journal. This is a great way to begin to develop your awareness of gratitude. This doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out process–simply jot down five things you are grateful for on that particular day. This can be people, events, or things that you are most grateful for that day. As you write them in your journal, feel the gratitude and appreciation. Remember, there is no right or wrong here. Anything–including the sun on your face, the snowfall outside your window, a kind word, a friend, or just feeling good about what you accomplished that day are all examples of what you might write down. You can do this during the day, but I prefer to keep this journal by my bed and make my list just before I go to sleep. This provides me with a wonderful sense of acknowledgment of my daily blessings as I drift off to sleep.

4. If you prefer not to write before you go to sleep, try using another suggestion given by Dr. Joan Borysenko that she learned from a Benedictine monk, Brother David Steindl-Rast, author of Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer. Every night before you go to bed, say thanks for something you’ve never thought about being grateful for before. Initially, it’s easy to come up with something new, but as time goes on, you’ll really have to dig deeper to find that something new each day. If you stick with it, however, you’ll begin noticing things to be grateful for throughout your day, knowing that you’ll need something new for that night. This simple exercise keeps you mindful and has the power to change your life.

Zig Ziglar said, “Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important, and by far the most life-changing.” So, instead of focusing on gratitude just on Thanksgiving Day or during the month of November, why not practice a gratitude attitude daily? You might just find yourself smiling for no apparent reason and declaring to yourself and others, “Life is good!”

About a week ago, I received a payment from one of my clients. Enclosed was a note from her that included the reflection I’ve included below. This client is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and I felt so blessed that she took the time to send me such a powerful message. One of the parts I love most about the work I do as a Bubble Goddess consultant is making lasting connections with other women. I call it heart connecting and believe it is an important component to the work I do. Yes, I sell wonderful products, but–equally importantly–I make relationships that I hope will continue for years to come.

I hope the following message touches you as much as it did me.

RE-POTTING OURSELVES

–Thoele

This weekend includes deeply powerful holidays. No matter what your religious affiliation, in many parts of the world the days from October 31st through November 2nd are filled with rituals, celebrations, community and/or family gatherings, and all kinds of festivities. These three days include the holidays of Halloween, Samhain, All Saints Day, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and All Souls Day.

Woven through all of these holidays and events are the themes of death and rebirth and connection to the cycles that bring growth and transformation of the spirit, as well as acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of all life. In much of what is celebrated during these three days, there is the message that from death, life emerges. For many, it is a time when the “veil between the worlds” is believed to be the thinnest. This is the ideal time to communicate with, commemorate and honor our loved ones who have died–who have crossed the veil and left this world. For those who celebrate “Dia de los Muertos,” death is not to be feared–it is to be embraced, especially on this day. For many, this 24-hour period between sundown on Samhain (Halloween night to many) to sundown today (the Day of the Dead) was and still is a time when deep insights can more easily pass to those open to them.

Whatever your belief system, these three days, and especially today, can be a time to remember our loved ones who have died as well as an opportunity to tap into our own inner wisdom. Whether you believe that inner wisdom is coming to you from somewhere or someone else or whether you believe it resides within you, this can be a day to take time for yourself and go within and/or spend time in nature.

As we leave the month of October and enter the new month of November, we are entering a quieter time. Nature shows us the way through all the fallen leaves and the fading of the autumn colors. As trees have lost their leaves, we can now look up through the canopies into the sky. At night, we have the chance to gaze on the same stars our ancestors did long ago. We can begin to smell the burning wood in the fires we light or see the stacked wood outside people’s homes. We hear the quiet in nature, the settling down from all the activity of summer and early fall. We begin to spend more time indoors and feel the urge to gather with our families and friends. We are moving towards Thanksgiving and the December holidays which speak of the returning of light.

This is a glorious time of year that we are entering. A time to contemplate that as nature quiets and goes within, the seedlings and the buds of next year’s bloom are already in process. We know that the cycle of death and rebirth is occurring. November shows us the way to tomorrow–teaches us that there will be a tomorrow. Our ancestors show us that there is a tomorrow as well. All life dies and finds rebirth in a new form. The cycle continues!

I wish you peace and love and connection on this first day of November!