What you’ll need in your working life right now depends on where you are in your own vocational Wheel of the Year.
Here you’ll find a brief overview of the four major seasons I work with so that you can see how the tenor of your worklife is resonating today, and then you can venture down to see exactly how the Late Autumn period can support you in finding greater congruence and ease.
Read MoreI parked my car on a side street a few blocks from my house. I had a call with my therapist and didn’t want our nanny to overhear my vulnerable disclosures from the next room. I could tell that it was going to be a tearful session.
A light rain pittered and pattered on my windshield as I tried to describe to Rachel, my longtime therapist and mentor, the deep, bone-marrow sorrow I was feeling that day. I told her how far from the ground I felt, how I was at once floating above life but also subsumed by its demands. After I spoke for a while, Rachel asked if, in my heart, I felt as if I was living the wrong life.
After the 18 hours that it took to make the necessary sacrifices upon the altar of motherhood, her body and mine were able to come into sync and make a birth happen. We spent a couple of days in the hospital before returning home, where I’d originally intended to give birth to her. Because we had to rush to the hospital unexpectedly, one of our midwives cleaned up after we left and was supposed to lock up on her way out.
Read MoreAt an animal tracking workshop I took a few years ago, the guide was preparing us for our walk through the woods and told us that one of the foundational skills of tracking is to widen one’s perspective. He went on to say that most modern humans go on a hike and are very focused, walking with our heads down or directly in front of us, primarily tapped into our sense of sight and not much else. This way of moving through a wild area makes it very hard to notice animal signs and contextual clues that can help us track the creature(s) we’re looking for.
Read MoreIf we step into the Winter season with the intention of embracing the deaths that have presented themselves as necessary, then we can drink in the rebirth that’s on the other side.
Read MoreThe hermit living off of the land or the priestess tending to a holy fire in a temple know that to labor is to worship. Their work is intimately tied to their connection with themselves and something greater than themselves: their human and more-than-human community. The hermit and the priestess don’t have a spiritual moment in the morning and then become absorbed by meaningless work for the rest of their days - their spirituality is the work, and the work is spiritual.
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