Background.
- I am a fan of entry and exit.
- I like rituals. You may have noticed.
- Waving hi to the month of July is a variation on my daily Hello, Day practice.
- Gwishes: what I call those things that are not goals or wishes but kind of both.
That should be enough. Let’s do this.
Hello, July! What I want from July.
By which I mean: What I’d like to receive/learn/perceive/experience in July.
Okay. I want to be able to rejoice over July. To release this dread, resistance, regret, fighting-with-what-is.
It’s July. I’d like to be able to say HELLO, JULY, without the accompanying Oh crap how is it already July?!
Or if I can’t accept the July-ness of July yet, at least to recognize that and say hello to it too.
I want to see the good and find the good and remember the good. Without minimizing the hard.
To have something reignite. Sparks. Excitement, enthusiasm, optimism. I don’t know. I can’t remember. I want to remember.
I want this to be the month when I arrive on the other side of this gigantic growth period and say ahahahahahahaaaaaaaa this!
The qualities and superpowers of this July.
Hope. Trust. Safety. Support. Love. Adaptability. Agility. Congruence. Flow. Forgiveness. Play.
For my body.
Walking, breathing, singing, tramping on the tramp, going to dance class, lots of Shiva Nata (five minutes at a time), napping.
And lots of water.
And more napping.
Sleep, basically. As a gift. Here you go, body. I care about you. Enjoy.
What does Slightly Future Me have to say about all this?
She says:
You’re doing great, hon.
This can be another turning point if you let it. You’ve done the work.
The key is joy, delight, gratitude, not-forcing.
And you have to play with it. Fill up on your you-ness.
Stop. Look around. Stop again. Enter and exit. Be conscious.
And take lots of baths.
Let’s make some Gwishes!
Gwish! Gwish! Like bubbles.
I gwish for:
- A vacation! A longer one!
- For the ten Shiva Nata posts writing themselves in my brain to put themselves on paper or turn themselves into pixels.
- For a redoing of the Plum Duff Days in the new format.
- Spaciousness and ease.
- A new couch.
And let’s throw some things into the pot.
I throw all of this into the pot.
Play with me? And comment zen for today.
You are welcome to write your own Hello, July.
Or drop off some gwishes.
Or write July a love letter.
Or invent your own month-welcoming (or month-naming) ritual.
We all have our stuff. We’re all working on our stuff. We take responsibility for our stuff. Because without sovereignty and spaciousness, this whole thing falls apart.
And we make this a safe space by not telling each other what to do, how to be or how to feel. We make room for each other.
That is all. Much love and happy July-ing.
Follow
Hello July !!
oh what a beautiful letter by Havi.
Can I join the Sleep Intention ?
and the ‘end of a growth period pleaeaease’ question?
then for my private July – I’d love to know more about it’s superpowers.
perhaps actually going with the rhythm of the standard work day for a while – taking it ever so easy on the planning front
perhaps long hours of the same same same can help create a sense of simplicity
perhaps writing in the morning will help me find back my flow of thought and wants and help me remember what the line of history is here.
Love to July and other blog readers!
Hannah
Oh July,
I gwish for you to see far fewer tears of anguish than June, or May or April. I gwish only tears of relief for you.
I gwish for you to be filled with possibility and love and open hearts.
I gwish for you to be filled with abundance.
I gwish for lots of yoga and swimming and biking and fast growing hair and sleep and maybe the possibility of meeting someone.
Howdy July,
I gwish for stream-lined ease of writing the various writery things that need to be written.
I gwish for a break from heart-break for me and family so we have time to integrate the loss and sad.
I gwish for a smooth and seamless sale of the beautiful house I live in.
I gwish for big attendance and buying at this weekend’s tag sale.
I gwish for saying hello to all the feelings that come up around all of the above.
I gwish for ease, compassion, creativity,and joy in this time of magic carpet riding (thank you metaphor mouse – this used to be called transition/limbo)for me and anyone who needs it.
Hah- I wrote meetaphor mouse before I spell checked!
Hello, dear July.
I am reminded that you are the month of the Sandy Toes Moon. Or the Lavender Moon. Both seem appropriate, as ever.
I would like you to be full of trust, hope, joy, delight, adventure, spontaneity, flow, permission, play, pleasure, abundance, and sweetness. Please.
xoxo,
me
Hola Julio!
I gwish to welcome all the routine-breakers that are coming and that cause me insomnia. The visits, the travels, the taking care of others.
This is what I’ve been waiting for, this visit and I really would love for it to be special. So, July, if possible could you be full of sunny days and gentle breeze?
Could you help me unwind and kick the expectations out the window?
Could you invite my Leviathan for summer swim, so he can leave me alone for a little while? We both need a little space(and sleep).
I hope it’s not too much to ask.
Love this so, so much. Let’s see…
I hereby dub July the Month Of Saying.
Its superpowers will therefore include: necessary hiding when the saying gets scary; lots and lots of hugs and comfort; the power to discern between shadow comforts and necessary comforts; secret fort napping; finding the air conditioning that hides in the heat; safety, did I mention safety?; and fruit.
Yes, my superpower is occasionally FRUIT.
I’d like this month to include: plenty of time free from coffee and pain, plenty of escapes to friendly locales for chatting and bitching and healing as necessary, magical dish washing magic, and secret swimming. And dancing with the veils, when things get confusing and overlapped and patterny.
And there we go. Love the idea of a month-wide gwish! Beautiful.
Hello, July!
–I gwish to savor this upcoming vacation/reunion/celebration with my family.
–I gwish to be supported and healed in the ocean’s embrace.
–I gwish to plunge into my Big Project with new energy, sovereignty, joy and power. Even though I have conflicted wanting about this project, I would like to go for the gusto — with zany zest, even, and also with calm confidence.
–I gwish for ongoing intimacy and support for me, my partners, and my daughter. I gwish for us to be able to help each other when the seas are stormy.
–I gwish for perfect, simple solutions to my money fears.
Superpowers and qualities for July: Love. Creativity. Sovereignty. Security. Liberation. Presence.
Into the pot, and season well. Here I am!
A couple little gwishes for July:
– survival of the herbs
– extra sleep
– to build more Shiva Nata shoulder strength
– to eat sticky toffee pudding at the Kitchen in Boulder and to stay in a hotel instead of at home
To July – for heat and sun and slowdown. For lots and lots of happy artists and lots and lots of love and sales for their work. Including me. For calm and accompanying understanding and good orderly production at my easel. For love and clarity and rest with my sweetie. For acceptance of all I am and am not and will be. For the pot!
I am weeping to feel such hope.
HELLO, July! My gwishes:
–to come away from my movement for trauma training with the amazing Bessel van der Kolk with even more clarity about how I teach healing intuitive dance to women.
–to have the content for my new site make its way OUT OF MY BRAIN.
–to continue to drink over 70 ounces of water a day and to continue feeling positive effects (which have started after only two days).
–to continue moving forward with choreography.
–to get super super big time BRAVE with allowing myself to be BIG and OUT THERE (via video, etc.).
–to more deeply explore the concept of “relaxing.” 🙂
I gwish for July:
-times of laughter and easy, with new (old) friends and other people’s relations.
-to allow myself to call silent retreat when the above doesn’t happen or gets too much
-music, I definitely want more time to be still & listen music in July
Superpowers for July:
Water, Silence, just sitting & being
Jello, July!!
July’s Qualities and Superpowers for me:
Humor, trust, safety, love, consciousness, and play.
What else I want from July:
-more instances of shivanautical flailing
-to explore deeper into this perception that is not like reality and learn why my first inclination is to assume it’s all my fault
-more relaxing in the sunshine, gardening, and playing outside with the family
-end of the month: ease in planning our family trip and in finding babysitters for the period that daycare is closed in August
-to finally start that ritual my sister and I’ve been talking about starting for 6 months now
-more crafting!!
Gwishes:
-More pie
-A spontaneously free afternoon
Oh, July.
I gwish for you to be full of:
clarity. flow. understanding. trust. growth. experimentation. curiosity. safety. ease. simplicity.
growth = growth is not becoming some different. It is becoming myself, unfolding my potential, my possibilities, mys self. A seed does not become a kettle. It becomes a plant, the plant that is encoded in its seed-y-ness. The plant is already in the seed.
I gwish to finish my MA disseration in first draft.
I gwish to shift what needs to be shifted.
I gwish to trust that this will happen.
I gwish for my website to be on the internet instead of in my head.
I gwish for the ideas and visions I’m going to have to come to be clearly and wholly.
Dear July,
Hello. I am feeling sad that you are here, because I am feeling like I missed June somehow and a third of the summer is gone and I haven’t done anything summery.
I would like to feel as excited about you as I would have been when I was little, when summer seemed like it would last forever and every day seemed extra-long.
I gwish for:
-new friends who I have things in common with.
-more trust in the universe and in myself.
-some long days by the river with oldest friends, (or these new ones who will appear) stretching out into long nights of wild laughing around the campfire.
-a boy I am crazy about to kiss me under the stars.
-my friend R would move back.
-this deep deep sadness to lift and to feel hopeful and excited about life again.
-acceptance of the sad, and at the same time acceptance for the need for the sad to be lifted from me.
-a day when I neither cry nor even feel on the edge of crying.
-the year-long art project I thought of this week to become something inspiring.
-Shiva Nata to help me shift things
-my trivia team to PLACE, damn it.
big love,
xoS.
“Jello July” = I love it!
Oh, hello July…You snuck up on me (again….)
I would love some superpowers just for July. Laughter. Sovereignty. Safety. Clarity. Courage.
Mostly I’m gwishing.
I’m gwishing for ease in transition.
I’m gwishing for the ability to be present in these precious summer moments with my Mom.
I’m gwishing for motivation to take care of myself.
I’m gwishing that this is the month that I will get back to doing some Shiva Nata. Maybe even starting a real live practice.
I’m gwishing for reconnection with friends, family and places I’ve loved.
I’m gwishing for ease in writing things.
I’m gwishing for acceptance of what is. Or maybe acceptance is a superpower? Either way, I want it.
Carry on.
I gwish that all parts of my move (back to New England, for an awesome job) go smoothly and wonderfully. Especially the part about driving for 2.5 days with a cat who is not fond of cars.
I gwish that I figure out where I’m living there very soon. (Today would be great. Tomorrow would be fine. Soon.)
And I especially gwish for inspiration about what the shape of my new life there will look like – how to balance all the things I’m excited to do and explore, and the challenges of a new job.
Hello July!
I gwish that next week’s trip to NYC for a dear friend’s bridal shower/bachelorette party be in always both smooth and fabulous.
I gwish to make progress on projects both internal and external in ways that are full of ease and flow, not guilt and forcing.
I gwish for there to be fun and play and swimming and all the things that July meant when I was a child.
Happy July Everyone!
Hola july 🙂
I gwish for my training to go well and to enjoy the taper.
I gwish to have as much energy and happiness after the full ironman as I did after the half last year.
I gwish for
***July Superpowers***
walking meditation in the hallways at work. creation. mad making things happen skillz.
***For my body***
The taper and the end of training leaves me feeling rejuvenated and strong.
Lots of naps and going to bed early.
Stretching and yoga breathing. Both after and before exercising and my two minute mini yoga/easy office stretches every hour at work like the ergo guy said to do. Focus on breathing while doing this and it’s good for the body and centers me.
*** slightly future me says *** have fun. why so serious-a (said like the joker)
well hello july!
hope all the fellow commenter mice and beloved lurkers and havi are given what they are asking from you, or even better, unexpected awesomeness in general.
your first days have been filled with new ideas, new people and feels like it is the beginning of something new and fun and great
i am asking for the rest of you:
-i know it is winter over here in the southern hemisphere, but please, can you be a little warmer and sunny? or rainy, but please not too cold. please.
-for all the new to be fun, playful, full of ease and flow so it can be productive for the benefit of the bigger picture
-to bring closure and release from the old boss and institution, and freedom at last. hopefully with less of the unpleasant surprises and the pain and missing that june brought
-to keep in touch with the incredible new people i have met and the ideas and fun that were born
-clarity in my mind and in my words
-love love love (like the beatles song)
-rest and restfull sleep
-to-do lists that get magically done with ease and resources and trust
-this loneliness to be transformed by the fountain
-the magic mystery tour to europe in september to become tangible and be able to leave with all that has to be done… well, done
-that my favourite band does not come to my hometown while i am away, and that they play in one of the places i will go to while i am there
all my love, dear july
Hello July!
Even though it’s the 8th here I’m going to pretend it’s still the 7th, because that’s the Japanese Tanabata festival (at least that’s when we celebrated it), and it reminds me of writing wishes on special bits of paper and then hanging them on a tree at school.
I gwish for the strength and determination to keep on top of all the little chores that need doing.
I gwish for the stability to turn my tentative habits and rituals into lasting ones.
I gwish to leave July in better physical and emotional health than when I entered it.
I gwish that by this time next year we’ll have our own place with our own bamboo tree to hang gwishes from.
And I gwish for a pair of black pants that actually come up to my ridiculously high waist. And boots! Lace-up ankle boots. Mmm, boots.
Dear July,
I wish I was getting along better with you. I’d like for our relationship to be more about fruitfulness and fireworks than frazzle and un-fun-ness. We’ll chat some more via VPAs, but in the meantime, a handful of gwishes:
I’m gwishing for
* the farm I help to get both the weather and the customers for it to best flourish
* my sweetie’s shop to attract projects he finds rewarding (in all senses of the word)
* a thicker shoe-deflecting parasol. I mean, I think the shoes that have been smacking me this week were mostly unintentional, but they’re still making me cry. So if I could get some help getting them to boing off said parasol instead of me while I work on improving my reflexes (“yo, self, duck!”), that would be awesome.
* massages
* new nail polish. Something to complement the green-blue streaks in my hair.
Hello July!
Sorry I didn’t notice you there… so much has been going on. But now you’re here, you need a name: The Month of the Protruding Turtle.
The Protruding Turtle sometimes disguises herself as a Commenter Mouse, but she’s also has a Phonecall Making Demon mask (and anything else that involves terrifying social interactions… you get the point).
So these gwishes:
– I gwish for this comment to not be a blip (turtles can’t “blip”, right?)
– I gwish for the confidence(?) to not put off phone calls that can save everyone (especially me!) time
– I also gwish for the ability to work more productively/effectively at work
– And I gwish for the turtle to continue to protrude her little head.
– Aaaand I gwish to feel like I’ve blasted out of July rather than whimpering into August…