It seems to be a tradition now of not saying hello to the month until we’re a week in. Which is probably good. Get a sense of it and all that.
Anyway, it’s September. And this is an experimental form, so I’m going to say hello to September differently than I did in either Hello, August or Hello, July (both of which were quite different from each other too).
And since I just talked about conscious entry the other day, this is good timing.
September and different kinds of September memories.
I know there’s going to be — for me — an oppressive amount of heavy, formal, expectation-laden memorializing this month, with the ten year anniversary of the United States finding out about the kind of terror that happens where you live.
(What’s definitely not going to happen is this.)
So it’s in the ether. I’m aware of it. And I will do my own private mourning/processing as necessary, along with other things to separate out from the larger cultural angst. Angstfest 2011!
But this is not where I want my focus.
I want to concentrate on happier anniversaries:
- 6 years (and a week!) since this website came into the world.
- 10 years since I recognized that my marriage was over (which was painful at the time but also this giant bell ringing FREEDOM!).
- 10 years since a life-changing trip to Chicago and Madison.
- 3 years since I decided it was time to be okay having a home. That’s how I ended up with Hoppy House, which is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
September and my body.
I would like us to ease into fall together.
To keep dancing and walking. To keep doing old Turkish lady yoga, aerobics, tramping and Shiva Nata.
To notice how our relationship (me with my body) changes as the weather changes.
To keep letting my body be the CEO and make the executive decisions.
I may start teaching a regular Shivanauttery class at the Playground.
And I want to get back to doing trainings for the roller derby girls.
September and time.
Morning begins at night.
And vice versa.
Entry and exit. Paying attention. Asking the right questions. Using the stone skipping cards. Working with Cairene.
September and rest.
I have a crazy busy ten days right now, with running the Shiva Nata training that started last night, and [verb]-ing Rally #13 next week.
Going to need to follow that up with (metaphorical) Island Time and then a proper vacation. Also making plans for a holiday in October.
September and space.
Noticing what’s happening in my relationship with my pirate queen quarters at the Playground, aka my Dressing Room.
Noticing how I interact with my space. Playing with boundaries. Wearing my crown. And the furry toy snake. Taking notes.
Doing more Shiva Nata specifically to identify the patterns and mess them up.
September and play.
I have lots of new costumes in the Costumery, and I’m planning on using them.
For the photo shoot with Kylie. For Bridgetown Brawl (Besterns!). For teaching and for writing.
And of course I shall wear my Shopkeeper Hat.
September and Gwishing.
I have many Gwishes for September.
Including:
- Progress on Hawaii.
- A fully, happy Crossing the Line 8 Day Voyage (formerly the Week of Biggification) in October.
- Move up to the larger weights. When I’m ready!
- More planning for the Shiva Nata dvd
- new morning walking ritual
- the 2012 Rallies filling up. Rally!
- To feel sovereign, supported and grounded.
- To take care of myself in every way I can.
- Naps! Lots and lots of naps.
- Sandwiches at the monkey.
- Seeing an old friend.
- Shivanautical biggification.
- The orange couch.
I’m putting these all into the pot with love.
Play with me! And comment zen for the blanket fort.
If you would like to think about your relationship with this September and you want to share stuff, go for it. Silently counts too!
We all have our stuff. We’re all working on our stuff. It’s a process.
We let other people have their stuff and take responsibility for our own stuff. And we do this through not giving other people advice or telling them how what to do or how to feel.
Kisses to the commenter mice, the Beloved Lurkers and everyone who reads.
Extra wishes for a safe, healthy, delight-filled September with lots of the good kind of surprises.
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Oh, I loved this post. Truth be told, this summer … I barely even noticed it. I’m determined to really enter into, and experience, fall. I live in Yellowknife (waaaaay northern Canada) right now so it’s all the more important that I observe the non-winter seasons!
So — mini ways I will enter into the fall season:
Go cranberry picking (wild)
Create time to harvest, really harvest, my garden and put it to bed for the winter
Drink more wine (seriously. I hardly drink. To me it symbolizes slowing down, and abundance)
Be intentional with my clothing – put away my summer items, care-fully create my fall wardrobe (launder, iron, hang nicely)
Hello September!
** What I already love about you **
The going back to school energy palpable in the air. The chitter-chatter and the shopping of school stuff in town.
The closing of at least a few doors – 3 of my students are finishing their thesis. And new people are taking over the event-organizing.
** What is very very hard at the moment ***
A new year is starting and I am not where I’d hoped to be with my research. It’s triggering a lot of self-doubt and an overall sad feeling about feeling like no progress has been made.
The communication with my supervisor is not good.
** What I am gwishing ***
– a beautiful draft of my paper that I am happy with
– long quiet peaceful working hours
– a zone of protection where people can’t take my zen away
– meeting up with people who bring positive energy and ideas into my life
– something new. something fun. something that makes me laugh and makes me want more.
September is all about fresh energy for me. The fun of cracking open a new book and the anticipation of the knowledge and wisdom that might be contained within. Possibilities.
This September I’m trying to harness that energy to learn a few new software things and do research on some things that I’ve been wanting to know more about but just haven’t found the time. I’ve arranged my schedule for the month to have at least a half-day every week just to play with learning some new things.
Hello, September,
What I already love: spaciousness. The new client. The possibilities. Connections. Hello, relationships. Softness.
What I am gwishing: abundance to go with the spaciousness.
What I want to remember:
what but not how.
movement.
Shiva Nata.
love.
anniversaries: a year since things fell apart and came back together. Celebrating the coming together. Inviting more coming together.
Oh, September,
The semester starts back up in August so by the time you roll around, I’m in the groove with teaching. But then it’s September and I realize that I am overtired and overcommitted: conference deadlines are looming, projects that got my undivided attention during summer are crying for my attention, and logistics for the winter holidays need planning.
I do love that I’m back in the office with colleagues to chat with. The weather is beautiful which makes my commute easy and enjoyable.
I gwish for the ability to take some pauses.
Hello September!
September, I like you because you are a month of (for me) good anniversaries.
This month my baby brother celebrates the anniversary of his birth. I will confess that I did, once upon a time, recite the goblin calling spell from Labyrinth, imploring the Goblin King to come take my little brother away. All-in-all, I’m glad they didn’t – he turned out to be a pretty awesome brother.
This month my parents celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. I am, of course, grateful that they got married in the first place, on account of I’m glad I was born. Also, having parents who have stayed married for so long, and even better, are happy to still be married seems pretty rare. I’m glad it happened to me.
Most importantly (to me) this month my husband and I celebrate 11 years of wedded bliss. OK, maybe not every second of every day was thoroughly blissful. But if I did a chicken on it the list of the good would outstrip the list of the hard by an exponential factor.
Related to my own wedding anniversary, September is frequently a month for exciting adventures of the travel variety – and this year is no exception. We’re soon off to the Canadian Rockies for a week of hiking, and I can’t wait.
September, like every other month, I’m sure your days will be filled with little hiccups and excuses to get annoyed with the world in general and various of its inhabitants in particular. Those moments are, fortunately, fleeting. You offer me some big reminders about the good stuff in my life that isn’t fleeting – that is here, supporting me, year after year.
Thank you September.
Into the pot for September (I love the pot!) (wait that didn’t come out the way I intended) (oh well);
– To treat my body with sovereignty (finally understood what this means)
– To keep practicing being sovereign in general, particularly in the context of (formerly madness-inducing) school
– To get have Shiva Nata level one down cold. and to make it harder. try switching between saying the numbers in English, Korean, Italian, Japanese, Russian.
– To never cook when I don’t feel like it.
– A lovely time in Atlanta.
– To laugh a whole lot more. To keep finding things that are hilarious.
– To keep painting. Enjoying riding the art-stuck.
– To keep reminding myself to take the ‘should’ out of everything. I don’t have to (damnit!).
– To keep experimenting. Enjoying the fail.
– To separate the fake crises from real ones.
Happy September everyone! I wish you a warm cup of spiced apple cider.
Hi, September! A lot of things got shaken up for me last month. Now, here we are together!
I love your cooler air, your blue skies (and also your grey ones, which I’ve seen more of this week!), your surprise bursts of colorful leaves.
Qualities I am gwishing for this September:
Fresh new beginnings
Cozy gatherings
Lightening of burdens
Sparkling energies
Hello, September!
You are almost my favorite month.
You always have a bit of warmth, the leaves begin to change colors, and you include the anniversary of the day I brought my beloved puppy home to live with me. You also hold a hint of excitement and promise, which I suspect is somehow related to going back to school (even if I am not going back to school myself).
I gwish for:
Delicious foods
A new offering (or two or three)
Time on the trails
A celebration
Play and Possibility and Pleasure
A plane ticket
Trust and Flow
A healthy happy puppy
The dahlia field
Into the pot!
Things I love about September:
Autumn crisp air, filled with possibility.
The feeling of going back to school, even though I’m not. At least not formally.
Making changes, moving on.
Into the pot:
Having mentally prepared for the worst, a good outcome would be lovely.
Tax refund, please.
Grace in the midst of upheaval. Remembering my way Home.
Hi September
You are full of anticipation of future change… I like that… it’s still warm but it’s getting colder… it’s still green, but the trees are turning…
Hmmm… hoping for motivation, less anxiety, more understanding of me and the people I love… remembering to breathe…
Gwishing creativity… inspiration… friends… yummy baked goods that the onset of fall inevitably calls into being 🙂
Hello Septmeber!
Already September has a great excitement and sense of growth and possibilities. This is because of:
Back to school memories
Rally and the Survival Celebration
The garage work
The ongoing re-arrangement of the house because of the work on the kitchen
Doing 30BBM on my own
Other things that I haven’t listed but that I will be open to recognizing
September and Time
September is a time of looking back and looking ahead, a time of beginnings and transitions.
I want a sense of expansiveness with time so that I don’t feel rushed and pressured. I want to remember how to let myself do what needs to be done and to trust the process.
September and Comfort
Paying attention to comfort and to what works for me as I re-arrange things in the house. How can I make my home work better for me? How can I feel more at home?
Into the pot!
Hello September!
September used to be my third favorite month. It contains a lot of good memories:
– my Love Week (for a decade there I used to fall VERY hard for women who were born on Sept 8-12, and I’m still friends with some)
– my RealParentals’ anniversary
– it used to be the month I’d go to Cape Cod and go whalewatching, since whales are closest there in midSeptember
– it’s Autumnal Equinox time (I used to paint my face the colors of autumn on that day)
– I also, starting the 3rd week, would take about ten bazillion photos of changing leaves and generally have a delightful time.
I’d let a lot of that slip away over the past 10 years, but I’ve missed remembering the loves, I’ve missed celebrating with my folks (I called them tonight; hurrah!), and I *definitely* have sorely missed the subtlety of autumn makeup. I’d restarted the leaf bazillioning last year – much to the dismay of my phone memory – so making that a ritual might be a good way to keep it up. I think I mustMUST also go to Cape Cod, as I’d forgotten about that aspect of the whole thing.
And maaaybe if I do go to Cape Cod (I give myself permission to) I shall go to the Whydah museum and see what’s new in the pirate ship excavation!
Hello September,
Oh the struggle and the angst and the sad that I’m bringing to you this year… it’s a lot. And I’m sorry, because historically we’ve had a great time together.
I’m having the 9/11 sad/scaredness. There was a lot of sad there already, but then I was in the Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington DC last month when suddenly the building was moaning and grumbling and swaying and shaking and the noise was awful and it didn’t stop for a long time. And the screams and the sad and scared people (including me) who didn’t know what was happening and who believed that something big had run into the building or that something underneath/inside had exploded. We found out later that it was an earthquake.
And then I realized that I now live in a world where it is not unreasonable to conclude that horrendous noise/shaking is the result of a terrorist attack, rather than a natural disaster. And I mourned innocence lost. And then I really, truly considered what it must feel like to live in a place where the attacks are real and are commonplace and I cried for everyone. Everyone.
So. A lot of sad. A lot of heavy.
I do have some gwishes though:
– I would love for some of the things that are up in the air to come down and be settled. That would be really helpful. For example, am I moving? Where?
– To spend time in the mountains, enjoying the seasons turn and finding peaceful parts of me.
– Ease and flow.
– To remember my force fields and limits and what sweet me needs when interacting with my family this weekend. To remember to have compassion for everyone, even me.
– To re-approach Shiva Nata with a playful heart.
xo
My venture turned 6 on September 1, too! Hooray for 6 year olds!
Hello September,
I love you already because you are cozied in between the crazy August and the Vacation October!
I also love you because I don’t have TV so I don’t need to worry about what will try to come into my brain.
I also love you because I can get out my sleeping cap and begin wearing socks again.
Gwishes for September:
Love? Love! Possibility.
Forward movement with the New Thing with the right amount of money and time and things. And quickly decided.
More hooping!
One more boat ride.
Some work on eating stuff.
Hello September,
You are going to be a life changing month for me. I’m going to embrace all the beautiful and probably stressful change coming for me this month and I’m going to breathe through all of it. I’m going to accept that change and growth are scary but they’re necessary parts of life.
What’s going to be hard for me:
Accepting that maybe what everyone told me I should want isn’t necessarily my real truth. And not letting guilt for not wanting what everyone thinks I should ruin the fact that I am happy with what I now have.
What I’m gwishing for:
That my transition from corporate slave/part time writer/stressed out mommy to stay at home mommy/full time writer who lives in my Felix the Cat slippers will go well.
Have a wonderful September!
That the deer in my backyard will make it through the winter even though they’re now orphans
Hello September,
You are beautiful and hot already. Please stay that way awhile longer 🙂 I love the hot and didn’t get it earlier in the summer.
Great things are happening so far this motnh. I’ve started a new blog and am meeting lots of cool writerly peoples on the interwebs. Let’s keep doing that please.
I’m appreciating the new routines and am finding myself more commited to finding a future where I write and teach. Which is where that end of the month class thing comes up. I’m gwishing that I can be prepared and ready to audit a graduate level course and we can kick that off to a good start together.
September, can you help me find a balance between new routines and old routines? Help me make it so that I have time for everything, even if it is just a few minutes to check in with certain dreams and hobbies a few times a week.
Oh September,
You used to be my favorite month. School starting. Three birthdays in a row (Dad, then Robert, then me). New everything. Shiny new promises.
These last few years have been tough, I know. You’re that in-between month when I’m stuck at my parent’s house waiting for school to start, or stuck in the same town as school waiting for it to start and my friends to show up.
And this year, this year it all kind of jumped on us at once, all the old sadnesses and stucknesses and growing-oldernesses.
So I admit we’re not getting off to a very good start. And with D going out of town and everything so shaky after how I fell apart, I’m a bit scared of you.
You’re my first Portland September and this fall and winter are the experiment in whether I can live here or if I have to go nomading off.
Anyways, sorry for all of that, love.
Let’s create something great together. Full of presence and sovereignty. Let’s make this that great month that I started pole dancing. And learned to fix my bike tires.
Let’s make this the month that I was really deeply connected to the things I’m creating in my life – especially the vision of sustainable finances and a thriving business.
And I’m going to try to enjoy you. To savor you. Not to curse you. I’d love it if you’d hold my hand through that. You can be my month of celebration and not just mourning. That’d be nice.
Love!
Rhiannon