2012 was a pretty rough one, and I’m super grateful to my guides the messages they brought me throughout the year, and also deeply grateful for the practices that were given to me by Spirit.

In 2012 I realized that I know how to do “hard,” and “heavy”, and “work at it”, and “scary”. I’ve been doing those for a long time. I decided I was ready to learn how to do “easy” and “fun”. And I even got tools and Medicine that helped me to define what that even meant, and how to actually know how and when to do it, safely.

Fun and easy doesn’t automatically feel fun and easy for some of us. Some of us do, actually, need to learn it.

Turtle Medicine showed up for me with the Beltaine Full Moon in Scorpio. So many things came clear with Turtle Medicine. Even things I had been teaching for years gained a deeper purchase in me.

Honestly, I have no idea how I would have made it through all that made 2012 what it was without the “fun and easy” mojo going, and the tools to back that up. Don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t about everything all of a sudden becoming fun and easy. It was about knowing how to tell when the tide was turning, and being fine with retreating into my shell if things started feeling anything less than safe. Something about knowin’ when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, when to walk away, when to run…

That said, there was much fun to be had. And I had a lot of it! I allowed myself to have fun in ways I didn’t know I was capable of, and watched the grace and ease with which others have fun, and learned from it. I look forward to expanding on these lessons in 2013.

I love learning. 2012 called for a lot of it. And I feel like I’m a better person for it. And that I know myself better. And I do have more fun, and more ease. And I have amazing kids, and an amazing man, and a roof over my head, and food to eat, and for chirissake more abundance than I can easily sit with sometimes.

And, yeah, did I mention that I do have the most amazing kids and the most amazingly perfect-for-me husband? It bears repeating. Because whenever I feel even the littlest bit off center, that’s what I fall back on. My family. It’s a good one. A little pod full of love and respect. My life-raft.

So, from this place of gratitude for all that I have, and all that I have learned, and all that I am embracing for the coming year, I wish you and yours, and me and mine, a magickal 2013, full of ease, fun, abundance, and joyful flow.

Now, in the tradition of my own tradition – not so traditional…commitments, intentions, and why-the-hell-nots?

Commitments:
I commit to rebuilding an even better relationship with this body of mine. Good food, lots of water, exercise, activity, dance, singing, being in it because it feels good to be, and the more I’m in it the better it feels.

I commit to treating my man with continued devotion. This is where we are. THIS is ALWAYS where we are. Right here. I will show up for and with you exactly where we are at. No expectation; only love.

I commit to treating my daughters with love, respect, and JOY! I promise to support both of you in growing more and more fully into who you are becoming, in ways that are healthy, supportive, and just. I also commit to making time to have fun with you both, together and separately. Watching The New Girl, going to yoga or dance class together, taking little trips, crafting days, summer road adventures and festivals, picnics in the parcourse. I promise. (And you promised too! I heard you!) You guys are growing up so quick, and you’ll be moving out before we even know what hit us. I will treat the time we have together like the cherished thing it is.

I commit to my larger family to use my voice, and my lack of voice, in service of healing. Sometimes silence truly is golden.

I commit to my community of friends new and old to come out and play. And to teach. And to learn. And to dance. And to sing. We will sit in circles, and dance in meadows, and learn and teach from and with one another. And together, we will heal.

I commit to my friends from across the world, who I never get to see, to continue keeping the prayers in my heart and on my lips.

I commit to all beings pervading space and time to work the work of enlightenment, for the benefit of all beings.

Intentions:
I intend to have more fun, to walk forward with ease and trust, more trust and more ease every day. I intend to experience joy in my family, my work, my body. I intend to write. I intend to reinvest in my yoga practice. I intend a major shift toward the light. |

AND, I intend to maintain awareness of the magicks of Turtle medicine. Slow and steady wins the race.

I intend to dress up and go out, and to do so with my man when he wants, and by myself or with friends when he doesn’t. I intend to go DO things, just because they sound fun.

I intend to worry less, and laugh more this year.

Why-the-hell-not?
You know, this is a category I don’t really have such a huge need for right now. Crazy, but I’m already doing a whole lotta “why the hell not?” Okay, maybe one; cherish the down-time. Make space for it. Create an altar to silence. Ah. Yes. That.