As this year of all years winds down and blessedly out…we can take time in the lengthening quiet of the night to reflect. On how we have grown or remained stuck in the quicksand of our own minds.
When the circumstances of life present challenges and change it is always an opportunity to grow. To stretch yourself. This year has presented many teachers, many ways to expand personally and collectively.
Today marks a New Moon Cycle in the house of Sagittarius and oh..throw in a Solar Eclipse as well. New moons offer a fresh start, a new beginning, the birthing moment of a cycle. Sagittarius asks us to examine our belief systems. Particularly the ones which we are deeply bound too. The rigid ideas we hold onto for dear life.
Sagittarius asks us to stretch. To grow and expand in new directions, new ways of thinking…of being.
This is not easy work. It asks us to loosen our grip of control and to stretch ourselves into a new shape. About the big stuff. The long held beliefs we have honored and been taught. The ways we worship, the ways we learn, the ways in which our society is structured and run. Money institutions, governments, educational systems, religions, social structures, ways to heal, and our long held biased judgments and beliefs we have about one another. And ourselves.
Think of something you deeply believe. An idea or concept you are very attached too. It could be something big and important or something little and negligible. Something you think you are damn right about.
Maybe it’s something you were taught. Or something passed down to you through the ancestors. For me, thank you notes spring to mind. Hand written, on stationary or a card, mailed by the post office with a stamp. In a timely fashion. This is a structure and a belief which was very much handed down to me and drilled in from childhood. Most of my life I have religiously practiced this. Even to the point of hand cramps and arthritic flair ups writing up to 40 notes at Christmas time to my students when I was an elementary teacher. Full on notes for trinkets and token gifts, which is another belief system…presents for the teacher! But I digress…
Long ago something called a bread and butter note was practiced. When you went to visit someone it was expected you would write them a note following the visit to thank them. Expressing gratitude for their time and hospitality. My grandfather did this. I have some tangible examples.
My mother drilled into me the importance of thank you notes and to this day I feel guilty when I do not follow through. I don’t write them much anymore. Because they are no longer completely expected. They are still very much welcomed and joyfully received but you are no longer considered a social pariah if you neglect to write one here and there.
You can thank in person, or through email or text…
Expressing our gratitude to one another is a socially acceptable concept. But is it really necessary? Why is it necessary? Because it makes the giver feel good? One could say it boosts their ego. Do we really need to have our ego boosted when we give? Could we give without expectation of outcome or wanting something in return? Think about it.
This is the sort of thinking Sagittarius asks us to engage in. To re-examine our deeply held beliefs and perhaps stretch them in to a new shape and to grow.
This New Moon how can you stretch yourself?