Shake and Bake 77 – A Super-sized Beltane Chicken

Shake and Bakes are my quarterly life/work check-ins (CHICKENS!) It’s my way of shaking off the “bad” and baking in the “good”  It’s about gratitude, paying attention and living by the moon. Much thanks to HAVI over at the Fluent Self for inspiration and to APRIL at Big Sky Astrology for her monthly Working with the Moon booklets.

Hullo Me HEARTies…

Spending some time today reviewing the intentions I set at the beginning of the year.  I’m working with the Celtic calendar this year – as well as the lunar one.  So my “new years eve” was on Samhain (Oct 31), and Beltane (May 1st) marked the halfway point for me.

My overarching … ideas …  for this year are to become more aware of the moons cycles and the presence of the Elements in my life.  The four – earth air water fire – and the fifth that binds them all.

I planned to …

… let my focus drift over the elements – Earth Air Water Fire and Spirit – this year.

To follow the moon more closely.

To pay attention to the natural world around me – to an even greater degree than I have been.

To meditate and thereby increase my overall “mindfulness”.

And… to WRITE.

Things are going pretty well, so far.

There are a couple of elements of my checkins that disappeared in the last few months as I turned my focus more and more to the following of the moon.  I missed these elements… so I hereby bring them back to play with again.

The Quick Chicken (The Doings that help me with the Being):

I track some of these with the Lift app these days.  As I start posting these again I’ll count from the last SnB

• Get up and decide to be Awesome 7/7
• Eat Breakfast 7/7
• Scrib 7/7
• Work on Sanctuary 6/7
• Walk 5/7
• Meditate (aiming for two sits per day and including a Self Compassion session in each sit for the month of May) 7/7

…and…

Drive – it is time for me to get my license.  Time Time Time.  So I’ve book a test for June 10th and I plan to drive at LEAST three times per week between now and then. 4/7

A Review of… the Things I wish to Let Go of

and Things I wish to Create (and Nurture)

These grew out of this year’s Samhain Ritual.

North ~ Θ (theta) earth – home – touch – body

I set an intention to let go of rigidity, to the sense of… knowing the The Right Way to do things, and to stubbornly clinging to some kind of Pre-Determined Path.

It makes me smile to read this intention.

I recently joined the Sea Change program over at Zen Habits and our focus this month is on Self Compassion and a large part of the exercise we are doing to develop this facility has to do with easing our suffering by LETTING GO of the IDEAL. The ideal being “the way we wish things were” – which is so very different from “the way things ARE.”

This is also, of course, one of the main focusses of my Vipassana meditation practice. This seeing/feeling what is actually happening as opposed to what I want to happen or wish was happening.

Very cool.

My other earthy intention was  to  Send Down Roots and to let them seek nourishment by growing – AS THEY WILL.  To Trust that they will find the nourishment they need and that they will support me  through the months and years to come.

There is a great reminder here for me that Strength comes from the root, and from flexibility.

East ~ Φ (phi) air – relationships – scent – mind

I set an intention to let go of the heavy air, of the fog that clogs my senses.  To let go of the weight of the Should Be Dones.

And to fill with Light and Ease and to follow the scent of My Own Truth instead of always seeking seeking … chasing ever after wisdom from the outside world.

This is going… pretty well.

I still feel the weight of the shoulds… but the Self Compassion practice is helping, as is the fun I have over at lift with all my check in pallas.  For some reason, checking off things and getting my “BOOM!” every 21 days lifts the burden of shoulds… maybe it is just that I can SEE that I am doing many things…each day.

I’ve joined a few things and continue to read read read – of course.  But I do think I have quieted at least a BIT of the noise that was overwhelming me last year.  Stilled somewhat that frantic searching searching searching thing and am so content to just work on one small thing at a time.  I could do even LESS here.  Heh heh.

South ~ Χ (chi) fire – work – vision – will

I set an intention to let go of the fiery Rage that I cling to as some sort of twisted Protection from my Fear.

To stand firm in my own strength and if/when Anger is directed at me, to answer back with a different kind of Passion and Heat from within mySelf.  Not an answering Rage, but a burning away of Rage and a spreading of light.

And to nurture my own passions, my hungers, my curiosities, my senses and sensuality and to thereby re-stoke the fire of my love of this Life and of Living.

Wow… I had totally um…forgotten that anger thing.  I believe it was rather specific to something that was going on with me back in November.  A situation that… still exists… but I am happy to say has shifted a great deal thanks to this intention that must have been working down down deep within me.  Huzzah.

As to the stoking of the fire… Yeah, I could do some more with that intention. (She grins mischeviously).

West ~ Ξ (ksi) water – health – taste – emotions

I set an intention to release the murky brine and poison that I Swallow back and to slip into the cool…into the warm…into the flow.

To take refreshment. 

To begin each day with a glass of cool water and to let it nourish me.

Hey…. I was totally doing this “drink a glass of water to begin the day” and then… I stopped when we got back home.  We were hauling in water because the pump was frozen and I think I began to think of fresh water as “scarce” again.

I need to get back on this one.

The choking back brine thing…. connected to that anger thing… yup.

And the flow… oh the flow… it has been lovely to show up to the page each day and to trust that the flow will come.  It does.  And it is wonderful.  I don’t know that the WRITING is wonderful – but the feeling AS I WRITE is mostly wonderful.

Above/Below/All Round ~ The Fifth ~ Ψ (psi) quintessence – spirit – hearing/listening

I set the intention to let all the Teachers go – for a time.  Or at least the Clinging to them.

To Listen to mySelf. 

To follow my own Scent and taste my own Truth.

To touch the Earth lightly and to embrace the silence and the song.

To see the Beauty all round and within.

To Be and to know that this Being is enough, and that I can also reach for more.

Wowza…. Thems some grand intentions.  May I continue to practice this.

I still seek teachers, of course.  But I do think that more and more, I listen to them and then… find my own way.  Valuing the wisdom from within at least EQUALLY with the wisdom from without.

I think this is good.

~o~

Whew… That was fun… and good to review.

Here’s to a great second half of this wild year of mine.

Thanks for stopping by.

I’ve go to go now, and help the Raggedy Man clean the stove pipes and chimney.  Then… maybe we will sit outside and enjoy the late afternoon sun.

And… yes… the ice is still on the bay… but the cracks are showing.

I bet by next week I could be out in the kayak.  Here’s hoping.

Go easy ~p