Susan Cooper says what I most want to say here:

The Shortest Day
by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now–This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

If you like the kinds of things you read about on my blog, you should watch his video and play the “I Like Who I Am” Game that he demonstrates!

If you want to see my results, comment below and I’ll post them.
Also, you’re invited to post your own results. Let’s announce how fabulous you are!

Try a Little Tenderness by Otis Redding

Click here to view the embedded video.

And watching him perform it, I realized that this is the tactic we so often forget to take with ourselves.

Working with ourselves, we get frustrated or saddened by the challenges of just being us. But there is nothing in our egos, our personalities, that is there by accident or design flaw.

Everything within us exists for a reason. So says Systems Theory. All the components of what makes us up function together in some kind of a dance. More like the relationship of stars and planets than that of gears in a watch, but everything is all working together.

As I work with myself, I can get down on myself for making mistakes. For my stubbornness or my tardiness. There’s a way I can criminalize myself for any misstep. For all the work I do on myself, to be the best person I can be, shouldn’t everything be working now? Are there seriously still things I have to look for in the shadows?!

Well, yeah.  And looking for them in a pissy mood isn’t gonna work so well.

I truly believe we’re not done learning from and about ourselves until we’re dead. And even then, who knows?!

So if I want to know me better, understand my challenges and emotional stuck points better, I have to come forward with openness and curiosity. My stuck parts need my kindness, sympathy, and wisdom. I don’t need to shut them up; I need to listen to them and lead for them, not from them.

Seeing Otis Redding today reminds me of this.
What if, in our self-exploration and healing, we kept that viewpoint in mind. Said, “how does this serve me?” rather than “how do I get rid of this?”.

What if we tried some tenderness?

Have you brought any tenderness to yourself lately? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

I used to simply read my daily horoscope for funsies, and occasionally read up on my birthsign (loving personality description systems as I do). But more and more as I deepen in my healing practice, I really start to notice how I’m effected by more global issues.

For instance, are you noticing that the last couple of days there have been more cops and sirens, more communication confusion, more people feeling tired or sick, than there were a week or more ago? I have!

And now when I see trends of issues, I look around for what’s up with the planets. Right now, it’s the full lunar eclipse that’s making us all a bit more wonky. Check this out and see if this helps explain what’s been up in your world.
And maybe feel like we’re all a part of something much bigger…

Even when things are wonky, I like to know that we’re in it together.

Then it was toast. Sadly for her, because she really loved her Subaru, nicknamed SueB.

So what did we do?

We created a ritual to honor the body of the car and to extract the soul energy of it into a bead so my friend could bring it to her next car.

Silly? I guess maybe, at least to the people coming in and out of Walgreens as they saw us rattling, burning sage and laying roses on this old car.

But important? Oh my, yes.

To people who are not involved, any ritual may look silly. Think about a college graduation: thousands of people in robes with cardboard on their heads lining up to shake some guy’s hand and take a piece of paper that doesn’t mean anything (if your diploma was mailed later, like mine was). What’s the point of that?!

The point of it all is that rituals are important. They help us to honor transitions, to pause and contemplate what this period of time shared has meant to us, and to usher in the next era.

If you don’t already have a ritual for your transition, I give you permission to create one. Bring the sacred into the mundane and discover how each moment of your life truly matters.

This is what I talked about on the Brent and Brandi show!
Click the green button to listen in: 
 

What I’m getting at here is that we have to play a variety of roles when we’re running our own businesses. And, especially in the first couple years, the role of “business-creator” can vastly outweigh the role of “service-giver.”

Thus begging the question, how can I make my soul happy–doing what I got into business to do, my way, in the first place–and still make sure I get paid enough to eat and keep my home?! All without losing my identity or my mind?

This is what poet and freelance copyeditor Dorine Jennette and I delved into last Thursday. These were among our tasty tidbits of inquiry and info:

• some thoughts on how to make friends with your business side
• a useful question to ask yourself to rebalance your perspective of your roles
• a couple practical tips for fitting your soul back into your pragmatic daily life

Check the show out to laugh and learn with us. You can select this show on the player in the right-hand sidebar.

“Why didn’t I think of that?!” or “Wow, her website is so cool and professional…” What can follow that is thinking about why this person is so much better, more qualified, more successful, more popular, better liked, etc. than you. Not a fun path of thinking to go down.

So let’s talk about it and what you can do to stop it. Tune in to my internet radio show on New Year’s Day at 3pm Pacific Time and we’ll discuss it.

Want to get advice about your particular struggle? Send me your questions in advance to rachel@fogtofire.com or call in to (646) 929-1479 during the show to talk about it with me on the air.