Greetings dear good hearted people~
We did it! We completed 2021. Our beautiful and only home, planet earth, continues to orbit our brilliant sun, bringing light to our dark days in the northern hemisphere, while the southern hemisphere in full light welcomes the whisper of darkness, all spiraling in our cosmic world.
Many ways you may have crossed this threshold, leaving behind what has been, and stepping into the new. Though I imagine for most of us it is a welcome new cycle. It is a powerful collective moment, regardless of the arbitrariness of the Gregorian calendar marking this time, to be in a shared moment of transition into a fresh start. A moment to reflect and vision and begin again.
I had a dream last night, in which I wanted to change the dream I was in, recognizing I had been in the dream for some time. I expressed to my companion that I was not sure about this visioning thing. My first attempt was to close my eyes, and then open them to see what signs revealed themselves in a sort of divination. However I found that I could still see even with closed eyes. I tried covering my closed eyelids with my hands, and still I could see. I then spoke out loud... I am simply going to embody the feeling state in which I want to be - open, trusting, in love with an undefended heart, in connection held within community. And I breathed that in and the dream changed.
We can change the dream. This is really exciting good news people. And oh, so needed right about now. We are the dreamers. The cosmic intelligence and creativity of life expressed in divine human form, with the power to change our state of consciousness and hence the dream we are living. The more people that awaken to the dream, and dream the dream awake to the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible*, shifts our collective experience to that dream, that new story. I am not polyanna-ish here, it is not a given, and of course things are dire and we are in trouble, and and and... yet, the future arises out of our present moment. The state of body mind we cultivate and where we focus our attention in the moment matter. One person at a time, starting the only place we can to change our consciousness. Here and now, in our own bodies and minds. Pretty amazing.
What helps you stay in and return to joy and beauty, to a feeling of wellness and wholeness, amidst the very real and tragic and painful losses and feeling states? Do more of this. Together and in solitude. This year I have been more deeply grateful for music than ever to help me find my courage and joy. My body loves to move, to allow it all to move through. My most listened to playlists are a feel good playlist, a remind playlist a love and communion playlist and an unfurling playlist. I also have grief and rage playlists for moments when moving that energy is needed. But more and more, if that is the case, I listen to beauty.
Grief and beauty are intimately connected, like grief and love. To love fully we must let our hearts break, and our hearts break because we love deeply. Find places to weep, to keep the water moving, for water is life, and stagnant water begets sickness.
A few things to let you know about. I have a 4 week grief training program, Grief Accompaniment, coming up in February, which I imagine will be full of tears and beauty. I am also very much looking forward to hosting a 6 month online program for young adults, Regeneration Rising, which starts in March, registration happening now. My website is not yet up - turns out my rhythm and pacing is slower than the calendar!! You can find all the information and contact details you need below.
One more thing. The most important. Gratitude. And humility. That is two, I know, but they are connected. I arrive at this threshold feeling incredibly resourced and blessed. This is partly a function of the conditions of my life and my privileges certainly. But I am referring to the web of my relations, particularly the mentors I have had over the years, in many forms, whose presence and support, teachings and way of life, offered another way, a path, and a vision. All of the work I do springs from the well of those who have come before, in this living stream of creation.
I returned from a trip to South Africa a few days ago and among many magical and abundant gifts, a highlight was engaging with elephants at an animal sanctuary. Their devoted caretakers had been with them since they were orphaned when their adults were poached nineteen years ago. I arrived home to the rain and clear and strong flowing creeks here in the Chumash territory of Southern California. What a blessing to start the new year embedded within a water ecosystem and with the powerful gifts of Africa, our human origin belly button place, in my bones.
May your dreams for the new year be watered with a gentle rain, and may we find the inspiration we need to continue to show up and bring our hearts, hands and minds together to dream a new dream where everyone belongs and all our relations are tended.
wild grace and beauty blessings,
Alexis
*from Charles Eisenstein
Inspiration
Song: Colors by Black Pumas (thank you C.G.)
This morning I did a divination using The Wild Unknown Archetypes Guidebook card deck by Kim Krans and was prompted to read the following poem by Hafiz:
Hafiz: "Now Is the Time"
Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.
Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.
Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.
Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.
My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?
What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?
Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.
This is the time
For you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.
Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.