Nox Amicus

It’s been a few days since the new moon, but traveling kept me from taking the time to announce this cycle’s intention.

The last cycle was about Change – and there certainly was a lot of it. Not just for me, but for people very close to me. Some of these changes were joyful, some painful, but all evolutionary.

This cycle, I’m choosing to focus on “honor”. Honor as respect, honor as reverence, honor as acknowledgement. For me this takes on the flavor of Matt Smith’s final speech as the 11th Doctor Who:

We all change, when you think about it we’re all different people all through our lives, and that’s okay, that’s good, you’ve got to keep moving – so long as you remember all of the people you used to be.

Moffat, S. (Writer), & Payne, J. (Director). (2013, Dec 25). The Time of the Doctor. In S. Moffat & B. Minchin (Executive Producers), Doctor Who. BBC.

Acknowledge the change, respect the evolution, but hold reverence for what came before – because where we’ve been, good and bad, have all been steps to who we are today. I’m grateful for the life I have today – but I wouldn’t be “here” if not for the joys and screw-ups along the way.

This season I think it’s also important to remember to honor the differences we share. That phrasing is intentional – differences we share. Because we might think of someone’s beliefs, habits, or personality as different from our own – but they think the same of us. We share the differences – and honoring that can bridge the gap and unite us.

Sleep deprivation brings interesting philosophy sometimes. 🙂

Whatever holiday you choose to celebrate this season, may it be honored and joyful, and bring you all that you most need!!

Here we are at another new moon, let’s pray that this cycle is better than the last. My last month’s focus was about Choice – and while I fully expected it to move in one direction, I was reminded of the adage that if you want to hear the gods laugh, announce your plans. Instead, last month I was faced with a flurry of decisions, choices, and interactions I couldn’t possibly have prepared for – and maybe that was the lesson. Sometimes we’re placed into untenable circumstances where we need to feel our way through – where no amount of preparation can ever be enough. While I’m, of course, grateful for the lesson – the price last month was way, way too high.

It seems fitting – and somewhat logical – to follow a month focused on Choice with one focused on Change. I’m reminded of the quote from Garth from “Wayne’s World” who said “We fear change” – but there really is no alternative – we all either evolve or we stagnate. I’m also reminded that everything changes – not just us. When we throw a pebble into the water, we change, the pebble changes, the air changes, and the water changes. Or from Star Trek (2009), “I never thought of space as the thing that was moving”.

So this month will be being mindful of the eddies and currents of space and time, and matter and energy. As I move along, I want to remember that everyone else is doing the same thing – and if we bump shoulders or step on toes, I want to try to do it as gently as I’m able.

Another full moon tonight – and another facet draws my attention. This past cycle was about Gratitude – and there was a great deal to be thankful for. The month saw its share of challenges, but it also brought community together for great purpose, it saw the release of the first CD, it saw the celebration of important milestones, and it brought a constant reminder that we are all in a state of change.

It was this sense of change that inspired this cycle’s focus – Choice. When I was first meditating on this I thought it was Decision – but I was assured that it wasn’t as decisive as that… it was flexible, malleable, and fragile. Many of us are blessed to be able to make choices every day – mostly simple ones – what to wear, what to eat, how to socialize and with whom. But there are bigger choices ahead of us this cycle – because the next New Moon falls on the morning of Wednesday, November 7th.

Today I needed to make some uncomfortable choices around how best to pace myself this week – but in the coming weeks my choices will affect not only myself, but my friends & chosen family, my relatives, my job, my spiritual community, and people I don’t even know – but for whom I am called to have compassion.

So this cycle I will be especially mindful of my Choices. To “always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind”.

Yesterday the moon was new again, so it was time to pick another area of focus. This past cycle was about Collaboration – and during that time there were ample opportunities to both engage in and reflect on the people in my life I collaborate with. Colleagues in work, friends and chosen family, artistic collaborators, magical collaborators – and it’s interesting when I look at my life that each of those segments overlap – there seems to be artistry, intimacy, and magic in so many things I work on and toward.

The most prominent collaboration right now is the impending CD release – and it’s fitting that today, as we begin a new lunar cycle, is the day that everything has been finalized and the process of submitting for replication and production begins. It’s a very exciting time – and a time that brings forth this next cycle’s focus – Gratitude.

In my liner notes for the CD, as I was thinking of all of the people through all of the years who played a part in bringing this project to fruition, I used the phrase “to mention one would be to mention all”. The oldest song turns forty next year. We’ve been recording for eleven years. Just about every soul I’ve met has encouraged, discouraged, deflated, or inspired me in one way or another over those years – and each instance, whether good or bad, is something to give thanks for. Each step and each misstep brought me here.

So while I’ve tried to maintain an outlook of gratitude for the past five years anyway – this cycle will be a time of personal Thanksgiving for me.

Thank you for reading… Thank you for being.

This past Saturday morning brought the August New Moon – and the wheel turned to the point of my picking another area of focus. Last month was about Honor and it was interesting to see what shapes that took. For the most part, it seemed to be baring witness to events without interaction or interruption. Honoring the paths, cycles, and spirits while not imposing my view onto them. That was harder than I thought it might be – but letting go helped to let some magic in. Which brings us to this cycle.

Honoring the the paths of others last month brought me to focus on Collaboration this month. The two most recent acoustic gigs with the band – last month where I felt I let everyone down, and this month where I was exuberant when we finished. Those subtleties of harmony are a great metaphor – the more I force it, the worse it is – but by relaxing into it, by staying in the moment, by allowing for deviations from the norm, we leave open moments for beauty.

So I choose to look for opportunities to open the doors. The CD is in the final stages of production and I’ve chosen to call in collaborators and ask them for their talents rather than do things I’d simply be forcing. I’m also looking for ways to establish alliances and collaborations in work. My subconscious is also in the mix – with a very strange but empowering dream that coincided with the New Moon this weekend.

This concept of honoring the collaboration of others brings to mind a quote from André Gide: “What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it; what another would have written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself – and thus make yourself indispensable.”

For the last lunar cycle I chose ‘Boundaries’ as the topic that needed focus – whether that be identifying them, manifesting them, or dismantling them. It was an enlightening month where I needed to make some pretty profound choices; choices that will shape the next few months and possibly much longer.

In the past few days I’ve been thinking about the reasons behind those choices and around limits that needed to be established. In that reflection, the word that kept coming up in my mind became the theme for this cycle’s intention: Honor.

Honor means different things to different people. To some it’s synonymous with respect, and to other’s it’s more far-reaching than that. For me, honor needs to be intrinsic. It cannot be something you give until it’s recognized as something you have. In order to express honor, I believe we must also live with honor. That’s a lot easier said than done. Living with honor is valuing what we know in our souls to be good and just. It is eschewing arrogance and hubris in favor of compassion and understanding. It is showing restraint so that our convictions won’t trample the convictions of others. To know when to stand firm, but go no further.

I had a conversation recently with someone I was not politically aligned with. We talked, we listened, we debated – neither trying to change the other’s mind, but rather to just understand. This one conversation seemed to be a path toward easing the toxicity our political climate has created. Honor one another and live to the principles you espouse – cultivating honor in ourselves may engender honor in others.

It’s New Moon time again – and this one is easy.

I’ve been moving through some pretty profound changes lately. I know many of you are aware of my affection for the Spoon Theory – and frankly, I haven’t had the spoons for very much these past few weeks. I know that I’m moving toward a series of resolutions, but in the meantime I’m very much where I said I was last night, in a place to “insulate and isolate”, and really, incubate all of the Seans I’m on the cusp of becoming.

So this cycle is all about Boundaries. Healthy boundaries are necessary to give ourselves a safe place to be who we are without having to play roles for other people or fight meaningless battles. They also help to set and measure expectations. For me, it’s also about staking out and defending “home”.

How will this manifest? I don’t know yet. I would say there’s a very good chance that I’m going to get more quiet than I’ve already been. If it comes as a shock that I say I’ve been quiet, then you probably won’t notice anything. But there are big things around the corner that will require energy and focus – and I want to be my own capacitor.

So for now – I don’t mind the walls.

This is another month where up until the moment of publication, I was sure I knew what the new moon intention was going to be – but it’s not time for that one yet.

This past cycle was about Hope. There were moments where it was evident, and other moments where I had to search for it – but overall I recognized that Hope is something we can manifest ourselves, we don’t have to wait for it to appear. We have it within ourselves to bring a change in perception and a change in perspective. There are times when we need help, but looking at the trusted souls in our lives can help us to find whatever might not be obvious in the moment. I’m grateful to all of the souls who helped to show me that Hope surrounds us.

This cycle’s surprise really shouldn’t be. As my focus in creative projects shifts, as I gain a deeper understanding on what my professional role can be, and as I look for moments of revelation in my personal path, the focus of intent for this lunar cycle is Inspiration.

This is a tricky one though – because while I think Hope can be manifested, I’m not so sure you can flip a switch and be inspired. But I do believe we can create the circumstances where we can be visited by inspiration, and I believe that we can look for it more deliberately as well.

Since I’d started to read the Homeric Hymns last month, it seems fitting to close this with an appropriate quote:

“I will begin with the Muses and Apollo and Zeus. For it is through the Muses and Apollo that there are singers upon the earth and players upon the lyre; but kings are from Zeus. Happy is he whom the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his lips.”

It’s 9:37pm and the moon is new – so it’s time again to look back on this past month’s focus, and think about what lies ahead.

During the past month I found that I approach Responsibility differently than I did even a few years ago. I had gotten into the habit of saying “yes” to anything, a holdover behavior from childhood, regardless of whether I could actually accomplish the thing or not. In the past few years, I’ve been a lot more careful about “yes” and have tempered them with a well placed “no”. That balance has worked well.

The lesson seems obvious now, but Responsibility is very much a balancing act between Yes and No – gauging what the different outcomes might look like, weighing the options, and then calling the play. Sometimes “no” may hurt the listener, but as I’ve said for a long time, No makes Yes much more valuable.

All week, leading up to today, I thought I knew what this New Moon cycle was going to be about. I had this post drafted in my head, I looked up definitions and etymology, I was ready to set pixel to screen. As I sat here typing though, it changed.

No – it’s simpler than what I thought it was – and much more valuable.

My focus this lunar cycle is Hope.

Few people know about my battle to regain “Hope”. Several years ago, just using the word in a sentence was ‘strongly discouraged’. “Hope” became “wish” – but you know, they are two very different words. It’s interesting – when you don’t use a word, the intent behind it leaves your life too. Never doubt the power of words – whether they are in use or if they are absent.

So this month will be about Hope in all of its forms. Hope in the promise of a new day, hope in a smile or a hug, hope that keeps us moving forward. — feeling hopeful.

Last Saturday morning brought this month’s new moon, and the time for a new focus for me. January was self-discipline, February was Trust – but as I was moving through trust issues (which I think I’ll be doing for all of my days, just with varying degrees of intention), I made the connection between Trust and Responsibility. Welcome to March.

A few years ago when I read “The Four Agreements” I really was drawn to “be impeccable with your word”. When we say something to someone – whether we’ll call, we’ll write, we’ll join the meeting, complete the status report, whatever – when we agree to do a thing, we’re asking that person to Trust us. To trust that, as they saying goes, our word is our bond. Socrates is attributed to saying “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.” The book of Numbers (Numbers 30:2, NIV) says “When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.”

This bond, this contract, establishes honor and integrity with the people we live, work, and play with – but also reinforces a sense of integrity in ourselves. We see ourselves as responsible. But this also pushes us to be responsible to ourselves – so we know we’re doing our best to take care of ourselves and our own needs and find that balance between being responsible to ourselves as well as to others.

So yeah – this month is about Responsibility – and has already resulted in some deep questions and some interesting changes. I’m curious to see where moving further down this path takes me.