The moon is once again signaling a new beginning. I love this about the lunar cycle. We don't have to wait for another January 1 or another birthday or another season. Every month we are invited to join the lady moon for a fresh start. She signals us quietly and calmly, just a sliver of cool light. She whispers to us, "join the creativity happening all around you. play and dance and make something. let go of your quest for the alluring, yet ever illusive, linear (upward) trajectory through life and surrender to the cyclical rhythm of nature."
Within this fresh start offered each month is the paradox that we continue on with our life. We keep moving and breathing. We start again and continue on. I just finished Elizabeth Gilbert's delightful book Big Magic. She concludes with a reminder about life's paradoxes.
Creativity is sacred, and its not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn't matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us. Make space for all these paradoxes to be equally true inside your soul, and I promise -- you can make anything. So please calm down now and get back to work, okay? The treasures hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes.
I love that she asks us to be playful and at the same time, nudges us to settle down and just do what we were made to do. It reminds me of the dual nature of the moon celebrated in the yoga asana pattern Chandra Namaskar (moon salutes). They are wonderfully alive, while intensely calming. The moon herself can invite heightened or grounded energy depending on whether she's new or full.
So what will I do today, Day 1 (in the fourth month of the year, in the 36th year of my life)? Rather than move on to the next book in my stack, I think I'll start this one again. See what I might have missed the first time. Allow the encouragement and inspiration to sink in a little deeper. Start the same journey and see how it becomes its own, different from the last.