I am at Ease with Myself...
I am at Ease with Myself...
Wintering//11.01.21
Welcome to Monday Morning Mettā
A new + beautiful way to experience Mondays.
I am at ease with myself. I am at ease in my surroundings.
You, and all people, are not only allowed, but it is your right to feel at ease with who and where you are. Say it and breathe it. I am at ease. I am at ease. I am allowed to be at ease.
You have the right to feel that relationships are generally easy.
You have the right to feel safe and comfortable at home.
You have the right to trust and love your body, skin, and all that’s in it.
Sometimes, that stuff that feels impossible starts with a deep breath and a whisper to yourself.
I am at ease with myself. I am at ease with my surroundings.
So glad you’re here.
Fun Tarot Card Reading!
Use your intuition to guide you to a specific card below. Choose the card with the crystal on it that calls to you.
At the end of this newsletter, you’ll see the cards flipped over, with a reading for each one. The card that you choose here will have your reading for the week.
Wait to scroll down to the bottom until you’ve chosen your card!
Card 1: Sodalite Choose this card if you need some help expressing yourself.
Card 2: Snowflake Obsidian Choose this card if you need to release stressful mental patterns.
Card 3: Green Calcite Choose this card if you want to get back to your essential nature (whatever that is). It’s a green-thumb stone!
Class Schedule This Week:
In Person:
Wednesday: 7:45am Gentle Wakeup Flow at Sruti Yoga Center in Great Barrington
Online:
Thursday: noon // 45 minutes
All other classes cancelled! The Mobi Yogi is in the mountains :)
Zoom link is on TheMobiYogi.com and email me for the password!
Free breathing “retreat” is next Monday, November 8.
8:15-8:45 eastern time. Sign on for some conscious breathing and a little meditation. Perfect for bedtime or pre-dinner relaxation.
An Excerpt from Wintering by Katherine May:
Above: A little larch tree. A deciduous conifer (aka they shed their needles in winter).
Below, you’ll see an excerpt from Katherine May’s bestselling book, Wintering. I am still reading it, although I can’t put it down. She has beautifully and accurately described what it feels like to “winter” within one’s own body and mind, and how it is not only “normal” to winter, it is natural.
What is not natural is the way we view wintering.
Consider how do we as a society look at and talk about people who winter, who take their time off when they know they need it, their time to themselves, their time to hibernate and heal? It’s similar, in my experience, to how many of us see trees as they change from green to brown. We often see those trees as defeated, moving from brilliantly colorful and shady to drab marks on a landscape. Not as Katherine May describes them below.
Oooooo Wintering is making me think.
“The dropping of leaves by deciduous trees is called abscission. It occurs on the cusp between autumn and winter, as part of an arc of growth, maturity, and renewal. In spring and summer, leaf cells are full of chlorophyll, a bright green substance that absorbs sunlight, fueling the process that converts carbon dioxide and water into the starch and sugar that allow the tree to grow. But at the end of the summer, as the days grow shorter and the temperature falls, deciduous trees stop making food. In the absence of sunlight, it becomes too costly to maintain the machinery of growth. The chlorophyll begins to break down, revealing other colours that were always present in the leaf, but which were masked by the abundance of green pigment: oranges and yellows, derived from carotene and xanthophyll. Other chemical changes take place to create red anthocyanin pigments. The exact mix is different for each tree, sometimes producing bright yellows, oranges, and browns, and sometimes displaying as reds or purples.
But while this is happening, a layer of cells is weakening between the stem and the branch: this is called the abscission zone. Gradually it severs the leaf from access to water, and the leaf dries and browns and in most cases falls off, either under its own weight or encouraged by wintery rains and winds. Within a few hours, the tree will have released substances to heal the scar the leaf has left, protecting itself from the evaporation of water, infection, or the invasion of parasites.
Even as the leaves are falling, the buds of next year’s crop are already in place, waiting to erupt again in spring. Most trees produce their buds in high summer, and the autumn leaf fall reveals them, neat and expectant, protected from the cold by thick scales. We rarely notice them because we think we’re seeing the skeleton of the tree, a dead thing until the sun returns. But look closely, and every single tree is in bud, from the sharp talons of the beech to the hoodlike black buds of the ash. Many trees also display catkins in the winter, like the acid-green lambs’ tails of the hazel and the furry grey nubs of the willow. These employ the wind or insects to spread pollen, ready for the new year.
The tree is waiting. It has everything ready. Its fallen leaves are mulching the forest floor, and its roots are drawing up the extra winter moisture, providing a firm anchor against seasonal storms. Its ripe cones and nuts are providing essential food in this scarce time for mice and squirrels, and its bark is hosting hibernating insects and providing a source of nourishment for hungry deer. It is far from dead. It is in fact the life and soul of the wood. It’s just getting on with it quietly. It will not burst into life in the spring. It will just put on a new coat and face the world again.”
-Katherine May, Wintering
🌗 Moon Info This Week! 🌗
New Moon (in Scorpio) on November 4th. Time to speak the intentions or wishes you’ve been carrying with you this month. Take a bath, light a candle, give yourself a reminder that everything is cyclical, that you can renew.
We Support Each Other
There are two beautiful ways you can support my work writing and teaching yoga!
Forward this newsletter on to anyone who might want a little love! Ask them to subscribe! Tell them you love them!
Come to one of my online yoga classes or schedule a private class, tarot reading, or reiki energy session!
Thank you thank you!
Much love,
Rachel
xo
Your Tarot Reading, Revealed!
Card 1: Sodalite // The Tower I mean, wow. What’s going on in your brain right now? You have so much on your mind and if you hide it away, you might explode. It can’t be held up inside you forevs. Write it down in your journal, or compose a letter that you don’t send (this works, I’ve tried it). Instead of throwing temper tantrum and involving others in your swirling emotional life, get yourself settled first. Prepare your statements in advance. Then, let it out accurately and truthfully.
Card 2: Snow Obsidian // Seven of Wands Crossing the continental divide (check out his stance). It’s as if you have two sides of yourself that you are trying to balance. You’re in luck, because you don’t need to bring those two pieces of yourself together (this is causing stress!). Instead, work with those two parts of yourself. Recognize what they are doing to help you and use them to your advantage. This budding (get it? look at those wands!) inner knowledge will support you externally.
Card 3: Green Calcite // Page of Wands You have creativity bursting inside of you! You may feel like you are in a productivity desert but your time there is slowly allowing ideas and passions to bloom and flourish (look at the wand and see all those buds? That’s your mind). Pay attention to the Wintering excerpt! Use solitude and walks in nature to boost your spirit. Open your Notes app on a walk and record sounds, thoughts, stories. Enjoy the natural world around you, even if it’s your trusty houseplant on the windowsill.
*intuitive tarot inspired by Sarah Greenman, who was in turn inspired by Chris Corsini