Saying hello to the months is an experimental form, and always changing. This is the fifth time I’m trying this (in a row — whoah!), and each time I’ve done it differently.
I’ve read over July and August and September and October, and each one is lovely and sweet in its own way.
What about this month’s hellos? What if they parallel last month’s goodbyes? That could be interesting. I’m trying it.
Hi there, November.
Hey, November. You’re here. I wasn’t expecting you but now that you’ve arrived, I’m weirdly happy to find us together again.
Oh, November. This is me preparing for the voyage (of being with you, November) through conscious entry.
What I love about November.
This is a bit of an odd place to start because I’m pretty sure that I don’t normally love November.
But somehow asking this is reminding me that actually I do love some things about it:
- The smell of rain.
- Having the parks to myself because all the Fickle Fair Weather Frolickers aren’t there. Spaciousness and long walks, with everything so green against the grey. Beautiful.
- Hot baths. Warm towels.
- The Playground is extra snug and cozy, with its magical rugs and soft blankets.
- Shavasana. Hibernation mode. Feeling the movement into winter.
- I look good in ALL hats. It’s my superpower! November is totally a month of hats.
- The Great Ducking Out, which is the best thing in the entire world. It will be spectacularly great.
- Root vegetables. Roasted beets and potato.
- Everyone is brewing porter again.
- Brewing. It’s also a kind of door, right?
- Sitting on the window seat and writing…
Things I am planning to love about this November.
- ROLLER DERBY CHAMPIONSHIPS!!! YEAH!!!
- And I am going to be there in person, watching Rose City kick ass. And we’re sponsoring! Because Shiva Nata and roller derby are cousins. Sort of.
- The workshop I’m teaching in Boulder (which you can still sign up for because the studio is bigger than I’d originally understood it to be). Yay.
- The Ducking Out, of course. Which you can’t sign up for because it sold out months ago but you can come in November, 2012 if you’d like…
November things about which I feel ambivalent or conflicted ….
Stupid being cold! Stupid dark all the time! Dry skin!
Also November is dentist time. This always requires force fields and secret agent code words and safe rooms and preparation.
I need lots of recovery time after the unbelievably amazing thing that was Crossing the Line this past week. But it’s going to have to happen in doses rather than in one piece. Not entirely sure how that will work yet.
November is also when we (me Selma the duck, and the First Mate) meet with our accountant and various other grown-ups in the business. And while our Treasure Crew is completely great, I always get nervous about how to translate stuff we do for the World Out There where they live.
But the Book of Me has a note that this always goes better than I think it will, and that I just have to be the Pirate Queen and wear my costume (not a pirate costume — a “regular person” costume).
Though ohmygod maybe I should go in a pirate costume. That could in fact make the whole thing significantly more awesome.
What do I know about November?
One of the things we did at Crossing the Line (haulaway) last week was discovering the things we know that we didn’t know we knew.
So what are the things that I know but don’t realize I know about November?
Or: If I had an Almanac of Me, what would it tell me about my relationship with November?
I am going to ask slightly wiser me about this.
Slightly wiser me has plenty to say about November, as it turns out:
“It is important to remember that now is not then.
“Those past painful Novembers are part of experiences from then.
“They are not held in the November-ness.
“You hold them. And you don’t have to anymore. You can keep the wisdom from those hard times without holding the pain in your space.
“Dark and cold is an opportunity to burrow.
“So go deeper into the blanket forts. Use color. Use texture. Use your quarters at the Playground. Be inspired by the Refueling Station. Follow everything that is orange.
Sorge dafuer dass es dir warm, gemuetlich und behaglich ist.
“Trust water. Trust the element of water. And be in warm water as much as you can. And drink tea!”
The qualities I want to hum in November.
Yes, hum. Havi, remember what the castle told you: humming is the aural form of shining!
Safety. Shelter. Appreciation. Replenishing.
Courage. Sovereignty. Spaciousness. Sweetness. Right timing.
Elimination. Transportation. Easy transitions.
And booty bouncing, of course.
(The monster collective would like to register their opinion that saying “replenishing” is almost as embarrassing as “nurturing”, and that I shouldn’t ever admit to wanting it, but I asked them to let us try as an experiment.)
Planting November’s gwishes.
A gwish is somewhere between a goal and a wish, and I have lots of them, but I am going to whisper-plant them in my journal instead of putting them here.
If you would like to whisper with me or whisper loving wishes for my dreams, that would be good.
Come play with me! Comments in the giant collective blanket fort.
I’m putting this all into the pot with love.
If you would like to throw things into the pot and/or think about your relationship with this November, go for it. You can do it here in the comments or silently in your heart. Or wherever and however you like, obviously.
We all have our stuff. We let other people have what’s theirs and take responsibility for what’s ours. And we do this through not giving other people advice or telling them how what to do or how to feel.
Extra wishes for a safe, healthy, delight-filled November with lots of the good kind of surprises.
Postscripting!
Come hide in blanket forts with me! There are a few spaces left for the January Rally (Rally!), and I would love to hang out with you and find out about all the magical things that will happen when we’re at the Playground together.
Follow
Hello November!
What I am appreciating about November-ness:
-that in SA that means the weather is cool and pleasant – autumnal without being miserable (like it is in NH)
-foods! soups and turkey dinners and pumpkin spice things
-holidays (the kind where they pay you not to show up to work)
-a slowing down at work – a feeling of spaciousness
-hibernation, going dark, going down in the cauldron, the period of gestation before rebirth, permission to embrace these qualities
What I am gwishing for this November:
-supply, replenishment (love that word!), nesting. To stock up around the house with all the supplies we have been running low on. To fill up the freezer with foods. support.
-to slow down, quiet down, contemplate. To think about how things are and how I might like to do things differently, in the spirit of play and experimentation. To try some new systems.
-December has a lot going on, as does all of 2012, so I want to spend some more time sinking into this practice of conscious entry, thinking about what I can do to give supportive gifts to future me.
What I want to give this November:
-my attention and appreciation. I want to enjoy being me-who-is-now, not just focus on future and past versions of me. I want to enjoy this period when the Texas weather is so lovely. I want to take walks in the mellow sunshine, and drink cocoa in the chilly mornings. I want to give November the gift of my joy in it.
Oh! “discovering the things we know that we didn’t know we knew” – that’s exactly what I need! I suspect that I might know more than I think I do. I’d love it if you could share the process you used to discover those things we know without knowing we know them.
Blowing kisses and sending loving wishes to your dreams, Havi! May the gwishes you whisper-planted in your journal sprout and grow into beautiful dreams-come-true.
Gwishing for another Sacramento (or California-based) Shiva Nata workshop 🙂 (I missed the last one since I only happened upon this lovely blog a few months ago.)
Hello and Welcome, November, month of fulfillment and hope, month of completions and beginnings. My favorite month – my birth month, my wedding month.
What I love about November:
The special days – family birthdays, my birthday, our wedding anniversary, Thanksgiving. The family gatherings.
Slowing down and winding things up before the holidays begin.
What I want in November:
Wisdom: more using of what I know.
Movement on stuckness.
Preparing to meet the needs of Slightly Future Me, and Me of the Holidays and Me in Winter. Setting things up. Planting seeds.
I like Tapley’s “what I want to give to this November”. Like her, I want to give the month my attention and appreciation, and the gift of my joy in it. (Thanks for suggesting this!)
Wishing everyone a joyous November.
Beautiful. Warmest wishes for your dreams (I typed ‘warmed wishes’ by accident, which sounds kind of icky.)
DEFINITELY wear the pirate costume – or at least some little part of it.
What I love about November
– the wind
– the grey swirling sea
– the fire
– closing the curtains
– snuggling with a book on the sofa on a wet Saturday
What I want
– to store up presents for slightly future me
– to take joy in the things I plan
I like Tapleys idea of giving November my attention. Entering…….
Hello November! I love you already.
I can feel you are full of stocking up, paring down, going inward and choosing when to go out.
I would like you to be just busy enough. Profitable. Peaceful. Travelicious. Maybe a few gorgeous surprises.
Oh, November. I’m sorry that I tend not to be happy to see you. It’s not just you, it’s December, January and February, too. Sometimes it feels like all the hard things happen during winter. Big things, like two breakdowns and the end of my relationship, and smaller things, like getting knocked down by a car, BonFire Night (loud bangs and scary public information films) and the mixed bag that is Christmas. Plus, you know, SAD. I miss the light.
But Havi is wise, and she says that now is not then. And that’s true. So I’m going to try and remember that. Maybe if we work together we can develop a better relationship. I would like that. Maybe we can find what’s fun about this time of year.
With that in mind, let’s see if I can remember some happy winter times. Well, that’s when the man from the aforementioned relationship and I were falling in love, and that was a wonderful time. Long walks in the cold followed by cosying up in the warm. Then, many happy times at university, full of games and friendship. A very happy Christmas in Portland.
So there you go, I guess it is possible to be happy in winter. Maybe we could do that this year! That would be lovely.
Love,
Kate
Excellent intro to November! I’m an autumn lover, and one of my favorite poems is all November. You can see it here with a thank-you to you, Havi. Something big is brewing for me, but I’m not quite sure what it is. Thanks for helping me have the courage to play with the idea.
http://www.bike-bliss.com/2011/11/november-fire-and-ice.html
Hello November, November with your crisp cool frosty mornings, with the leaves on the ground to crunch crunch crunch.
I seem to still be in the spiral. Which I suppose means I am aware of the spiral – although I kind of forgot about it at the middle of October. I’m still getting a feel of November, I only bought my bus pass last night, so it’s officially November as of 7:45 last night, at least from the bus pass point of view.
**naming**
November still finds me walking the spiral that I had hoped to notice in November. I also hope to put my focus on communication – going both ways. Requesting favors, granting favors, sharing my wishes and hearing others.
Right now I am picturing a soup can phone held up to my ear. The circular ridged shape makes me think of the caracol and the strings physically tying the connection together and carrying our quiet voices along them is a good reminder for me to try to strengthen my connections so that they are as visible and tangible as these cords.
Therefore November shall be the Moon of the Soup-Can-Phones
Hello, November. I shall name you Month of Incubation — and of Brooding!
Hello November, the month’s crossing…
So much amazing but so much thin skinned, tired.
A future ahead with a basket full of goodies to share with friends and future friends, my clients. I’m not excited about this today – but even so, it is quite a thing to have a basketful of lovely beautiful shiny things to share.
Exhaustion. No down time.Shifting into overwhelm. Wanting help. forgetting I have resources, experts, helpers who can meet me where I am.
Frozen on the spot at home. So full inside as in I am holding too much but i don’t know how to let go.
Friendship. My ex. Beautiful, powerful, lots of gratitude.
Hurt. Left to fight off an invasion online that is linked with a man who felt too weak to protect me or stand by my side. Disappointment. Sadness.
Body pain.
A weird, fragile month. The darkness.
Beautiful fierce skys.
the darkness. Not so nice.
A very old pattern. Aloneness. Loneliness.
I need to remember that I have choice and can look after myself. I don’t have to abandon myself. To cook, to clean, to rest, to laugh. To create structure so that I actually do those things.
November, saying hello to change & transition. Reframing November from the month of Winter depression to hibernation & incubation.
Moving, finally, Yay! After spending much time to make sure I made the right decisions for us.
Leaving a very toxic renting situation, the frat house in the sky. No more all night parties & drunken guys falling down outside our door at 3:00AM. Or being creeped out in the parking under the building because there were so many break-ins, Mgt had to have guards with real guns on patrol at night. Deciding for sure to sell my house, rather than move back in. Finding an almost perfect apartment, that is spacious, quiet, & no drama, very close to the countryside, as well as a holistic food market. Will drastically cut down time spent driving.
Busy, busy, busy moving. Simplifying & getting rid of stuff we don’t need.
Spending time each day to welcome the cold & rain with hot baths & blankets & layers of fleece.
Blessing & smudging our new space. Playing with the idea of conscious entry. Creating a safe haven.
Working with Slightly Future Me to help Me Then, when I feel panic.
Looking forward to the Great Ducking Out, where I hope to re-focus on my blog & begin yoga.
Hullo November!
Belatedly I greet thee.
I have been worried about the cold. But you have been good with great weather and running and warm clothes.
I’d still love to invoke qualitites of steady work and progress. Graciousness and working with other people. Accepting my role, whatever it may be. Shaping it just a bit. Trusting that good things are coming into place.
I shall plant secret gwishes now.
* Off to blow fairy dust *