Calling In the Angels

Here it is, the first day of the last month of 2016. November disappeared while I finished the first draft of my book while attempting to navigate the sea changes happening in the world.

After five months, the manuscript is with the editor. My body is refusing to sit longer than ten minutes in a chair. I am taking a month off from social media and writing, and enjoying the connections with family and friends and the beauty around me. This blog is a November/December letter dedicated to calling in our wiser and larger selves even, and especially, in the midst of seeming chaos.

In the spirit of Pema Chodron’s advice to “not spin off” when things get rough and tough, to hunker down and stay with it, to transform the angst and other emotions through compassionate human connection and powerful creativity, to call in the angels —I leave you with Mary Oliver’s poem, “I Have Decided” to ponder over the holidays and into the New Year.

“I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully in the cold and the silence. It’s said that in such a place certain revelations may be discovered. That what the spirit reaches for may be eventually felt, if not exactly understood. Slowly, no doubt, I’m not talking about a vacation.

Of course at the same time I mean to stay exactly where I am.

Are you following me?”

This blog is dedicated to Jonathan H.

* “I Have Decided” by Mary Oliver, in her book A Thousand Mornings: Poems, published by Penguin Press, 2012.

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Calming Practice: Keep It Simple

Laugh a lot. Get lots of fresh air.

Read a Dr. Seuss book to a child. Help with the dishes.

Be grateful for everyone and everything.