journey-to-balance

[journey-to-balance]

Navigating 2025... From the perspective of Esoteric Mysticism and how that applies to everyday life...

We're nearly there, the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, a time of rebirth and renewal and the true start of the new year as far as yours truly is concerned.

January extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and February arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at my exposed hands and face. I welcomed days full of a fine pale sunshine when the austere woods were beautiful and gracious in a dignified serenity and days when an exquisite melancholy seemed to hang over the landscape. But days, too, when the fitful moans of neighborhood trees followed me home.

It was a time of wrapping up loose ends and much needed rest - from tax preparation, and setting up the budget for the incoming year to a thorough winter clean-up, declutter and purge, the winter months for me are truly about getting rid of the old in order to make space for the new.

And newness is thus far keeping her promise, as I witness the backyard birds hurriedly yet methodically setting up their nests, and notice that the first shoots of daffodils have broken ground in the garden.

So welcome, welcome to the year of our Lord 2025, dear friends - a year in which esoteric mysticism calls for major endings and cycle completions both on a macro and micro level. Everything unstable will crumble. It's a year which the Chinese ancients categorize as the year of the wood snake, a time marked by growth when intelligence and creativity pays off, when patience and delayed gratification pays off, and impulsivity and drama bring chaos, and when flexibility and pragmatism are favored over rigid dogma. This time is expected to be cutting, exacting, and emotionless, in a matter-of-fact kind of way. Facts over feelings, boundaries over gullibility, while the snake sheds its skin and intelligently reinvents himself, it's still a snake, and they show you who they are, a confrontational year, a snake's venom in open and unapologetic display.

So be kind to yourself in 2025. Forgive yourself, shed that old skin and move forward. No matter what side of the isle you're on, it's too easy to be outraged these days. Try your best to make your time matter. Minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves if you're not careful - if you're not conscious.

Make time to meet people, to ask questions, to learn and to try and understand. Educate yourself. Question yourself. Challenge your own opinions. When a question about a certain topic pops up, Google it. Watch movies and documentaries. When something sparks your interest, read about it. Read, read, and read some more. Study, learn, stimulate your brain. Don’t just rely on the school system, as no curriculum is comprehensive enough and no teacher is infallible. Don't rely on the media, the politician or established systems where vested interest plays a defining role. Question what you see, hear and read as not everything is what it seems. Educate that insatiable mind of yours and you'll sail beautifully through these turbulent waters.

Make new things, show them to people who may benefit from seeing them, take those long walks, buy that dress, visit an art gallery, explore and travel, try that new food, and this is key, pay off that debt. Let what wants to go, go and what wants to stay, stay. The year calls for sincere honesty, for a shedding of masks and pretenses, for re-invention and re-discovery, for foundational strengthening as well as deep rooted shifts.

I don't know what shedding the old skin means for you - maybe it's finally kicking that habit, or that toxic relationship, or that rigid mindset, or maybe it's releasing that fear that's been keeping you a prisoner and your own worst enemy. I don't know.

I do know it promises to be a wild year, but one with so much revolutionary potential if you're willing to do the inner work.

I wish you health, abundance and peace in all facets of your life. Now, alongside with you, I say, let's begin...

Reflections...

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Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it to enjoy... Reflections...

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January extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and February arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces. I welcomed days full of a fine pale sunshine when the austere woods were beautiful and gracious in a dignified serenity and days when an exquisite melancholy seemed to hang over the landscape. But days, too, when the fitful moans of neighborhood trees followed me home.

Reflections on Winter - Musings of a Simple Poet...

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"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." ~   Jane Goodall | Dame Jane Morris Goodall ( Age 90 years ) is an English primatologist, anthropologist, and ethologist who has spent 60 years studying wild chimpanzees. Her work has challenged scientists to reconsider the differences between humans and other primates. In 1960, Goodall observed that chimpanzees make and use tools, a discovery considered one of the 20th century's greatest achievements. 

This quote, often attributed to Jane Goodall, means that every single action you take, no matter how small, has an effect on the world around you, and you have the power to choose whether that impact is positive or negative; essentially, you can consciously decide what kind of difference you want to leave on the world through your choices and actions every day. 

Key points:

Every action matters: Even small, everyday decisions can contribute to a larger impact on the environment and people around you. 

Choice of impact: You have agency to decide whether your actions will have a positive or negative effect. 

Personal responsibility: The quote encourages self-awareness and taking responsibility for the consequences of your choices.

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I’m the kind of person who likes to be by herself. To put a finer point on it, I’m the type of person who doesn’t find it painful to be alone. I find spending an hour or two every day walking alone, not speaking to anyone, as well as four or five hours alone at my desk, to be neither difficult nor boring. I’ve had this tendency ever since I was young, when, given a choice, I much preferred reading books on my own or concentrating on a project or listening to music over being with someone else. I could always think of things to do by myself.

Reflections...

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Lessons learned in life...

Your mind is not a cage. It’s a garden. And it requires cultivating.

Reflection inspired by both a lifelong love of learning, and a lifelong love of gardening...

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And to my children, I say... You have your whole life ahead of you. Be smart. Study hard and become independent…You must rely on yourself... Heart in the clouds, feet firmly on the ground. No matter what people may take from you, they will never be able to take away your knowledge. The world is changing. You must make your own life despite whatever chaos tries to distract, persuade, or derail your dream.

Reflections...

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"I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string." ~   L M Montgomery

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And while those around me dreamt of lavish vacations, finally being able to afford that designer handbag and shoes, or that dream car, I dreamt of living in a cozy cobblestone cottage situated in a meadow on the edge of a dense, misty forest.

There, I could grow delicious fruits and vegetables in my very own garden patch. Violets and rambling roses would grow wildly in the meadow where their soft scent would waft throughout the cottage. 

There, too, I'd venture out to collect berries in my wicker basket. A variety of woodland flowers would border a trickling creek or stream, where birds could happily chirp to one another, the soft breeze rustling through the leaves of ancient trees.

There, I would feel completely calm and finally at peace. 

Reflections...

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Never make fun of someone's hobby or passion - that could be the very thing that saves them from this world...

Reflections...

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You know that feeling when you’re out in nature at 5 or 6am and everything’s still and quiet and the air feels fresh so you shiver a bit but then slowly the first rays of sun peak over the edge of the earth and everything is bathed in foggy, golden light and you just stand there watching the earth awaken...

If that’s not soothing, I don't know what is...

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Melted wax candles, dusk, vintage perfume bottles, cotton sheets, rose petals, a hand written love letter, gothic buildings on cobblestone streets, the ballet, polished copper, a quintessentially red lipstick, rivers that run through cities, a silk dress, afternoon tea, lavender, fine jewelry, French tipped nails, chandeliers, the women’s powder room, glasses of champagne, harps, a long trench coat, holding hands along a promenade, Victorian style lanterns lighting the way.

A Love Story...

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Loving the natural world as I do, I've come to accept that nature is wild, cruel and endlessly beautiful.

Reflections...

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"I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they’re going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there’s going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don’t know how many branches it’s going to have, they find out as it grows. And I’m much more a gardener than an architect." ~   George R.R. Martin | Born: 1948 (age 76 years) | American author, television writer, and television producer. He is best known as the author of the series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire.

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I’m not the same everyday. There are times where I’m loud and chatty, and there are times when I’m really quiet, when the sound of my own voice irritates me.

Reflections...

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You are in charge of what goes on in your own head. This means you are also in charge of how you interpret what you see outside of your own head. It follows then that essentially you are in charge of your entire life, inside and out.

However you decide to interpret your experience determines the course of your life. Decide to see hope in the darkest corners. Decide to see calm in the stormiest sea. Decide to see love where only fear is obvious, and you will see the reality within the illusion.

Reflections...

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Uncomplicate your life. Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become.

Reflections...