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The New Year of Spring

The New Year of Spring

I don’t know where you live but here in Portland, Oregon, USA, it is spring. Clearly spring. It is still raining like it’s winter, but there are daffydowndillies everywhere, grape hyacinths along the streets, and my hydrangea is full of new leaves. Don’t even get me started on the trees. Friends, the trees are starting to be uh-may-zing.

The Snake is shedding Her skinsnake skin

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed a shift towards authenticity, disclosure, and vulnerability. I think part of this shift is about the shivering, sap-rising, muddy beginnings of spring.

I think part of it is about the Way of the River as a snake, shedding her skin. That is to say, not changing utterly, but revealing new, shiny, strong skin beneath what had become too small.

Many of you, the people I work with now, are considered, as Karen said in her comment of Friday, “misfits.” As she also said, “square pegs fitting into round holes.” But I don’t consider you misfits, and I never have.

I think that we “misfits” and “freaks” and “square pegs” trying to fit into unwelcoming spaces can take charge this spring. I think we can come together in community — if we don’t have one already—and lean into Spirit. I think spring is the perfect time to do this work. To let Life hold us, to let Spirit lead us, and to take advantage of the new year that is upon us.

Spring is the new year

New year? Spring, with the turn towards the sun sign of Aries, is the astrological new year. (So many new years, it’s hard to keep up!) It is the time when folk traditionally do “spring cleaning” and delight in the new light that that is now distinctly, warmly illuminating from beneath winter’s darkness.

And so my new statement—I help spiritually and sexually marginalized people feel connected, understood, and whole — feels super important, especially at this time of year.

It’s a time to care for ourselves. It’s a time for making space for our vulnerabilities. It’s a time to feel that sexy sap rising through our own bodies. Sexy, powerful, sap. It is coming on nature’s horny time of year, after all!

pink tree flowersIt’s a time for the buds to come out and get ready to bloom, baby, bloom!

In honor of Spring and all its beauty, I’m starting a class, April 12 once the season is in full swing, the flowers are out, and the mud has begun to solidify into tillable soil. The class is called Digging Sacred Wells, and it’s all about using practice that connects us to the nourishing spiritual water that can help us thrive, not merely survive.

There will be more information on the class on this blog, in Reflections (the mini-meditation and announcement “newsletter” you should really subscribe to! J ), and on my NEW Facebook page for The Way of the River! –> www.facebook.com/TheWayOfTheRiver, be sure to check it out. There will be blog announcements there, conversation, and other happy stuff.

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