Happy New Year and Some Spiritual Plans

[chironcentaur]

Yeah, I was awake to see the clock roll over, had a brief mini celebration with Renee, then we went back to whatever it was we were doing. What can I say,. New Year's has never been that big a deal in my little world

Comments

[erl_queen]

Good luck with the new list idea. It must be really difficult to establish a solid practice with your sleep and time issues - it's hard enough for me, and I don't have to contend with those! I think your idea is a good one, though.

As for Anthesteria, if you need any ideas, here are accounts of our last couple:

http://erl-queen.livejournal.com/159225.html#cutid1
http://sannion.livejournal.com/745819.html
http://erl-queen.livejournal.com/105997.html
http://erl-queen.livejournal.com/106317.html
http://erl-queen.livejournal.com/106604.html
http://erl-queen.livejournal.com/106928.html

[chironcentaur]

Thanks for the links, those will be helpful. :-)

I actually think you may have inspired that idea, when you were talking about the lists you keep. I hope I found at least the method that will work - may have to play with the execution for a while, but as long as I have the method down that will be good enough for me. :-)

[chironcentaur]

Thanks. Admittedly the Hellenic model is not a bad one, and it probably would work fine if I slept like a normal human being. But hey, I gave it a shot and I'm sick continuing to throw myself up against the same wall over and over again. And if I've learned anything in life (and its only gotten more pronounced since the spiritual life kicked in) nothing is right and true for everyone.

I remember noticing a distinct change in the air during Anthesteria last year though I didn't do anything for it. It is a liminal time and hey Hermes is involved, those all seem like good reasons to give it a shot. :-)

[gallows_queen]

I think your list idea sounds really good. And one of my own goals for this next year is to plan my holidays better--months in advance, even, since if I don't, lack of time or money usually means things not happening as I would have wished.

[chironcentaur]

That and the holy shit, its happening in two days, what do we do??? is not the best way for me to come up with something better than half assed. Right now, aside from my anniversaries, I haven't celebrated anything often enough to have established some traditions. Any grand last minute plans that we do come up with almost always have to be sacrificed due to not having the time or money to do them. And then its hard to enjoy the holiday when you're depressed about not being able to do it better.

Yeah, I really want to do better with that this year. Good luck to you, as well.

[laria_a]

Best of luck! Your list idea sounds like it might work, with your sleep/energy problems, so hopefully it will - and hopefully this new year goes better, spiritually, for you. :)

[chironcentaur]

Thanks. The list does feel promising (and I'm trying not to remember that I've thought that before :-P).

Last year was too much about making hard changes and working through serious issues. I do hope this year is about moving forward in the right direction and getting myself back to where I was.

[bluedolfyn]

I think it's so important to make ones spiritual practice work, which means doing what you're smart enough to do (and too many people aren't) -- know your needs, your limitations, and go from there. There's this idea of discipline = rigid, specific boxes/outlines/models to hold oneself to. For me, my biggest challenge was getting everything to balance. For too long I thought this meant everyone needed the exact same quantity of time and attention, but really, it's about quality and it's about being able to go with the flow, to follow the flow where it goes and about not forcing things.

I'm so with you on the festival front. I'm not going to say that this past year was one about me being mundane or setting everything down, but the important things were internal. That's needed, that's good, it's positive, but I'm back to wanting there to be external stuff, too. I miss the festivals. So, yay festivals!

[chironcentaur]

Yes, people have a very specific singular image of what discipline looks like, and it can be hard to work past that. Gets even worse with spiritual discipline. Realizing that not Everyone needs to get the exact same treatment, the exact same amount of my time and energy, was a lesson it took too long to learn. Even now I think I still struggle with that to some degree or another.

I try to talk about it (and will probably blog about it eventually) as much as I can because it seems too often that there aren't enough people talking about alternative ways of doing things when the more standard model just isn't working for whatever reason. Its worse when it can seem like everyone else is all doing the same thing and it works for them so why shouldn't it work for me?

I so want festivals to work better for me this year, I enjoyed putting time and energy into my anniversary celebrations, and I want to expand that and include more things. Since Renee and I are spiritually on our own this year, it seems like a good way to celebrate that.