We are sending out gratitude to all our blessings, as we come together to this Earth Send and this meditation for the well-being of all our relations.
If you have asked for reiki, if you are in crisis and in need of spiritual assistance and if you are ready to receive, reiki is on the way to you.
Love is going out to all who have become homeless due to a recent disaster and to all climate and war refugees. May you find safety, resources and welcomes in your new residence.
Peace to the entire human family. We have to do better than we do. It sounds like a cliche that people got tired of hearing, but we do have to do better.
The change in the season is palpable in my corner of the earth. Going into spring after a long winter always feels festive and invigorating to me, and I am not the only one. Vegetation has begun to come alive in hardiness zones higher than mine, so it won’t be long until we see some green in the land, too.
The last days have been too cold, too damp-cold (not too damn’ cold, although those words were made for each other — just kidding!) to notice any solid traces of spring. But the birds have been singing beautifully for a while, and when the sun is out, the air carries the scents of early spring. Within the coming 3 weeks, the seasonal shift will become more obvious.
The greening of spring is a balm to the eyes, and the change of pace that comes with it is so welcome. To gardeners and growers, spring is a lot more exciting than the season that is on the way out. My neighbours, peers, colleagues, clients and people on the street seem to have more zest for life than only weeks ago.
Unfortunately, there are more homeless people than ever in downtown, too. They remind me how much work is ahead of us. I look forward to the day when housing is declared a human right.
I am sending warm blessings to all my friends who are born in the sign of Pisces, some of who have been in this network for many years. I also wish Donna Eden who turned 80 this week a wonderful and joyful new year of life.
We are in the third month of the year. By now you might have formulated your year’s word or your year’s goals. Perhaps you are already busy manifesting or are savouring the experiences that you have decided to grow. A year is a substantial chunk of time to dedicate yourself to practising a virtue, a lifestyle change, a new behaviour and to reap the harvest of your efforts.
I recently got into some DIYs. So I am thrilled to wake up and apply my ideas. I feel life more fully when I design and create things — even if they only affect my household. Finding solutions to a few needs that my budget has not included so far opens the pathways through which other information and wisdom can reach me.
When I was growing up, I was often upset that I couldn’t afford the brands that the rich kids in my school talked about nonstop and that I saw in the magazines. Then, in my teens, I joined a circle of friends where all the girls were nifty and creative. We all wore outfits that we had no funds for, thanks to lucky coincidences, thrifting and imagination.
When I traveled in Europe in those days, I also saw astonishingly stylish women on the streets, even in economically depressed regions. When I asked the women how they got their fabulous outfits, the reply I got was pretty much the same: “I made them” or a relative was the tailor. This hammered the message home that style will come through, even if you decide to not parade as a living ad for famous names and even if what you have is not quite enough, and that strategy beats money.
I often remember the snazzy girls and the fetching Italian (!) and Southern Euro men I had encountered on my travels and how important it seemed to us all to dress in the way we wanted to be seen. 80% of these people were living on very tight budgets and were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. Still, it was important to present an image that was unique, well-traveled or bohemian, or all these attributes combined. It may come across as superficial to zone in on it, when you have pressing “real” concerns to deal with, but it was not about fitting in or about deep insecurity, it was a way to express a sliver of the creativity flowing through our veins, to emphasize surprise in daily life and to uplift ourselves, our friends, the boy-friend or the girl-friend.
In retrospect, it seems like a robust nonchalance about the angst and cynicism of an era, too. It is long ago, and I lived through chapters where what I wore had to take a backseat, but I still enjoy playing around with garments and touch-ups, I love handmade accessories, and I detach from people who do not exercise their creativity.
The memories of my friends in the past warm my thoughts as I work on my recent DYIs, too. I let myself play again, and I feel blessed.
A few more words on spring:
In many ancient cultures, as diverse as they were, and in many contemporary subcultures, the practise of abstinence, fasting or versions of “Lent” were / are observed when the coldest days of the year were, and are, about to turn milder. The tail end of winter would have brought a shortage of food anyway. People saw that they were not suffering from reduced food intake for a while. On the contrary, it rejuvenated them and prepared them for the warming temperatures ahead.
Today, these old practises got fancy names and enthusiastic followers, despite the fact that grocery stores in the first world feature an abundance of produce all year long. We too are nature. So maybe you want to take the clue from the land, too, and cut down on intake that is not creating health – physical, mental or psychological health… I, for one, will commit to clean-outs of the home and of the body.
May this day lighten your heart and give you something to dream about.
Itadakimasu, in gassho.
3 March 2023
Nanda Jurela 