Last month we didn’t say hello to September until the 8th. This time we’re closer to the entrance — I haven’t landed yet on the timing that feels right but will keep playing/experimenting.
Ideally I think I’d want a two-part ritual. Maybe a tentative wish-filled and welcoming hello to the month before it started, and then to check in and make proper introductions once it had begun.
Anyway, October! You’re here. Hello.
This is an experimental form, and always changing. Peek at July and August too for a sense of the variety.
And yes, this is is in the context of preparing for the voyage and other forms of conscious entry.
October gwishes!
A gwish is something that is not a goal and not a wish but somewhere in between.
And more fun to say. Gwishgwishgwishgwishgwishgwishgwish!
So many gwishes. Including…
Wanting what I want — and practicing that.
Nothing scarier than acknowledging desire — and giving legitimacy to the essence of desire.
The object of desire does not need to make sense or even be achieved. The point is being okay with the wanting.
This is something I’m working on in my business, at the Playground, in my home and in all sorts of unlikely corners of my life.
It involves looking for the qualities of the thing I’m wanting, and examining the internal rules and monster laws that say I’m not allowed to want it.
I’ve been practicing small (this is the bathroom stall I’m headed towards, that is the side of the street I feel like being on), and it’s been fascinating. Let’s have more of that this October.
And I’d like some shivanautical understandings to help me get better at wanting what I want, unapologetically.
Changing rituals for the changing season.
This is the part of the year when all my summer rituals collapse in on themselves because everything is dark and the weather isn’t playing along.
And it usually takes me a while to get into my fall and winter patterns.
This time around I’d like to do more work with the Book of Me, particularly with filling out more of the almanac sections.
And then to remember what I love about fall, and to set things up for that.
- Warm evening baths.
- Heidi’s marvelous Losing It potion.
- Leaf-crunching and puddle-stomping walks.
- Flannel sheets.
- Blanket forts.
16 and 16.
As you might know, I have been doing really intense work this past year with the concept of conscious entry and exit.
Mindfully and playfully experimenting with how I approach beginnings and endings. Remembering to pause (paws!) at the moments of threshold.
And lately I’ve been broadening my experiments and making them more extreme. Hahahahaaaaaaa mad scientist laugh!
So. At the end of October I’m running Crossing the Line: the 8 Day Voyage (password: haulaway), which is intense destuckification plus the stuff I don’t teach here because it’s too highly-hopped for mass consumption.
It will be AMAZING. And it’s a lot of work.
Normally I would carve out a few days before and after for deep immersion into teaching space, and deep recovery.
This time I want to double the time I’m spending in it. So if it’s eight days of teaching, I get sixteen days of preparation time.
Obviously, this is insane. I’d have to start Going Dark this Sunday. But I’m going to try to do this with an Island Time sort of approach.
Plum Duff!
This October is all about Plum Duff days (password: extraraisins), which go until Monday, October 17th at 11:00 am Pacific.
Except of course that everything will probably be sold out before then — I don’t think plum duff has ever lasted as long as it was supposed to.
Lots of amazing things happening.
Like two different types of highly unusual scholarships to events I’m teaching. Speaking of fun-to-say: Scholarship ship!
A new Gwish Kit. Signing up for a Rally, gets you comped into my Art of Embarking course. Various other exciting options.
My gwish is for plum duff days to be a happy, celebratory period, full of hope and possibility. And for it to continue.
The thing with Plum Duff is that it’s a GIANT production, with crazy hours of back-end administrative and design stuff. My pirate crew puts in serious overtime to make it happen.
I love doing it because it means making things possible that might normally not be. It’s the most loving thing I can do inside of the business.
But I’m going to need to be able to convince the grown-ups in the company that it’s also profitable enough to justify the massive amount of work that goes into it. So I’m gwishing for help — from all possible helper mice — in general rejoicing and spreading the word. Thank you!
The right name so I can try this thing I want to try.
A number of people I know run Quarterly Business Meetings where they talk about vision and plans and where they want their company to go.
I have visions! I have plans! That seems like a good idea.
Except that words like Quarterly and Business and Meeting make me want to curl up and cry for the rest of my life.
So we can’t call it that because I’ll never actually do it.
Either we need to come up with something that sounds similar but isn’t (Corduroy Circus Beatings?) or I need to send up a bat signal for Metaphor Mouse.
We’re Tigre and Bunny and we like the Beets! And the Boom. Or Pinky and Tina, as we also like to mis-remember it.
Either way, I need to call together the Enthusiastic (the opposite of a Board) and set up a date. And for that, I need the name.
Blanket forts everywhere!
One of the best things about Rally (Rally!) is all the crazy creative blanket forts that people build at the Playground for hiding in and working on their projects.
Last week I had someone put up a ton of hooks in random places to facilitate even more spontaneous blanket-forting.
Spontaneous Blanket Forting. Is it … just one guy?
I want my own blanket forts. In my office aka the pirate queen quarters aka the Dressing Room. And at Hoppy House.
Instead of just drooling over other people’s droolings (like here and here and here), I want some forts!
Let’s do this, October.
Naming the month.
Remember when we named the moons?
I would like to name October to remind me of the thing I am practicing right now.
Let’s call it … the Moon of Elongated Entrance and Exits.
You can name October whatever you like, of course.
Ooh, and you don’t know this yet, but on the 2012 Playground calendar, there’s a space on each page to name the month. I’m so excited about that. Hello, month!
Play with me! Comment zen in the giant collective blanket fort.
I’m putting these all into the pot with love.
If you would like to throw things into the pot and/or think about your relationship with this October, go for it. You can do it here in the comments or silently in your heart.
Or wherever and however you like, of course.
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. We do this by not giving other people advice or telling them 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 October with lots of the good kind of surprises.
Postscripting! Today is Day 2 of Plum Duff days (extraraisins) when things are extra special/affordable. If you’re scholarshipping, the sooner the better.
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So I named the months for the year a few months ago. And for September I had chosen Growing Moon (um..harder than I thought) and delightfully I chose Smiling Moon for October. YES! Love smiling moon. WOOHOO.
My October moon is The Moon of Falling Leaves.
Hello, dear October!
You are my most favorite month of all. Even though you are often cold and rainy (at least here in the PNW), you are full of reds and oranges and golds and purples and it brings me delight every time I think about you.
This month, I would like to spend more time really truly noticing what I need and want and taking care of myself, and taking notes on whether it is, indeed, good for me and good for my business.
I gwish for:
Time with friends
A frame for the “Be true” print
Spaciousness
A sumi brush so I can practice my scripting
Health
An ease-full trip to the midwest
Delicious, warm, comforting soups
A fall color outing to Bend
Rest and Presence and Belonging
A new offering (or two)
To make a point of going outside when the sun presents itself
Into the pot!
Sending love to everyone and their Octobers.
You have four Jewish New Years, right? So instead of Quarterly Business Meetings (I agree, yuck!) how about having four Pirate New Years?
Gwishing for all your gwishes to come true! I wrote a long Hello, October of my own, but the Internet ate it, so here’s the short version:
This October is my Moon of Preparation for a very ambitious year-long sponsored writing project I’m planning to start in November. I’m gwishing for:
Lots of time to reflect on whether I want to go ahead with this plan, and whether there are ways in which the plan needs to change. Compassionate ways around my fear of thinking about those questions.
Some conscious, loving interaction with the People Will Be Angry If You Spend Time On Your Thing Monster, the What If You Fail Monster, the If You Succeed You’ll Have To Be Awesome At Everything Always Monster, and the If You Succeed You Should Never Have Failed At Anything Monster. Also with my very numerous Writing Monsters.
Ease and spaciousness in making the practical preparations I need to make, all of which come with their own monsters.
A guilt-free recommitment to my Shiva Nata, destuckification and spiritual practices, all of which should help.
To continue working on reconnecting with friends and family before I enter crazy-busy mode. To be okay with giving them some of my attention, rather than all or none. To support other people’s creative projects as I realise how much I need support for mine.
Aw, and love to all of you and your Octobers too!
And I forgot the most important gwish of all (like I said, the Internet ate it) – to work out how I want to be in this project, and how to enter as I want to be in it!
Eve, I think my monsters come from the same litter as your monsters. *shares cookies*
Gwishes:
* project acing mojo
* legroom on flight to France
* sonnet- and sestina-crafting mojo
* saying the right thing mojo. Both in terms of speaking French and Greek and in terms of responding tactfully/supportively/honestly/appropriately to assorted situations
* to feel welcome at the synagogue I will visit for Simchat Torah
* to be more present in the here and now than anxious about what’s next or what I haven’t done yet
* an anti-itch cream or spray that works
* to choose a concealer that actually matches my skin
It’s Fountain Moon for me. Things be abundant and things be in constant motion.
Sending everyone good wishes and the comfort-beverage of their choice.
Into the pot for October:
–Cleaning and clearing. Releasing the old, to create space for the new. To create space, period, and to have it contain only things I want there.
–Work and play, and consciously exploring a deliberate blurring of the so-called line between the two. Working on that. Playing with it. Yes.
–New habits in caring for my body.
–Richness of shared experiences with people I love.
I think that, for me, October shall be the Cauldron Moon.
Ooh. The seasonal greeting/almanac things and the quarterly things make me think of some kind of witchy moon ritual (hello October!) or solstice/equinox-based spellcasting and soup-cooking. Essence soup! (Soup being so perfect because of course, into the pot.)
Going to have to come back when I have more time (The Moon Of Less Time Than You Think) to greet my own October, which has arrived with a whizz-bang-crash as well as a delightful cozy hug. There, that’s my mini invocation; when I can take a breath later this week I’ll get to the gwishes 🙂
Like Jesse, I’ll get to the gwishes later. For now:
October is the Month of Stars in the Grass. Neighbors on both sides have sweet gum trees; the leaves turn beautiful shades of pale gold, some with russet speckles, and are shaped like stars; plus sometimes there’s still morning dew and by the end of the month there’s sometimes frost, and they both gleam like stars in the early morning sun. So: Stars in the Grass.
The name makes me look forward to the month!
Your L’Trimm reference really took me back 🙂
I am also really working on being okay with wanting what I want. Watching you model your process is extremely helpful, especially the bit about “looking for the qualities of the thing I’m wanting.”
One thing I want is to get a massage more than once a month. The monsters say that’s selfish and frivoulous, etc. A moment of Bing! told me that because my fibromyalgia causes me so much pain, OF COURSE I want more pleasure to counteract that.
….How about “Wayfindings!” for planning type thingies?
Havi, your blog is so good for me – generally, but today in particular. (I often finding myself thinking “oh, if only I could remember this idea/practice/concept!” But I’m working on trusting that what is useful for me will stick, or pop back up sometime later, or build on something else I’m learning. Isn’t this sort of what you call Putting it into the Pot?) Wanting what I want is such an important concept. Thank you for reminding me of that. (A wise woman recently encouraged me to “be a bloodhound on the trail of my delight” – a phrase that has become my mantra lately). So I would like to join you in making October a month of getting better at wanting what I want. And in thanks for your post, here is a poem that reminds me of the value of my desire:
One night a man was crying,
“Allah, Allah!”
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said,
“So! I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever
gotten any response?”
The man had no answer for that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.
He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage,
“Why did you stop praising?”
“Because I’ve never heard anything back.”
“This longing you express
is the return message.
The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness that wants help
is the secret cup.”
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs no one knows the names of.
Give your life to be one of them.
(Translated by Coleman Barks, from The Essential Rumi, edited by Coleman Barks.)
*** Moons ***
I recently named all the moons of the last year and went straight into the moons of the next year.
I named this October the Moon of Calm.
Oh dear would I love my Moon to be all about blanket forts and quiet and organizing and calm assertiveness.
I am also quietly adding all the beautiful names in the comments :). Stars and grass and falling leaves.
*** Gwishes !! ***
1. Calm
Things have been messy around me for as long as I can remember now. I would love to attune myself to the ‘Deva’ (as Hiro calls it) of Calm, the spirit or essence or notion of calm. It is related to being centred, in touch with you inner voice. I’d like to be the centre of the storm where all is well. I’d like to radiate that and attune to that and step into the world from a place of quiet, breathing, ‘calm assertiveness’.
2. Time Line
I have started to write a “narrative time line” as Julia Camerona calls it (in ‘the right to write’). I’d love to continue for the month of October.
3. Orientation
Things have been chaotic and disorienting. I’d love to continue to collect clues and information on what is to come, on what I would work towards and move towards. I’d love to do this from a place of safety.
*** Fairy Dust Kisses ***
for everyone from me !
I always think that being okay with what I want is not a problem for me, but then…it is. And, watching you commit to asking and noticing and experimenting all these months has been inspiring. Your blog/site has been more helpful that you know. Thank you.
As for October, into the pot goes
*ease and creativity in writing my paper
*playfulness and confidence for my new thing
*enough people to show up at the workshop part of new thing
*efficiency without the dry pushy parts
*new boots – not expensive ones
*acceptance of my process
I haven’t named the months before and October is my birthday month and I’m putting my thing out there so it’s Birth Month.
Gwishful October to all!
@Martin Poem LOVE! I want to be one of those love dogs!
Hello everyone! and Hello October. Octubre. With the rain… we haven’t had rain in October here for years (three years at least, possibly four).
Sacramento has been on some weird kick for at least the last three years where it only rains in January (and for some reason this year May June and I think a day in July).
So, hello October that is actually behaving like fall. Thank you.
**Naming** I think October is traditionally the harvest moon. I like that, I’d like to see the fruits of my labors, although I’m still in a planting mode for many things. And I’ve been seeing a lot about the spiral journey instead of the linear journey. So – maybe October can be the Moon of Spirals and Caracoles. Beginnings and endings passing each other in the spiral.
**Gwishes**
1. Spaciousness – I have a new space in my house thanks to talking to husband thing we basically wound up trading our working surfaces. I now have my old desk back and he has the table for his desk. I want to be able to use this space for my many projects.
2. Time – I want to find the time to work on all my projects and tie them all together. Fractal flowers has been working for me (investigating the feminine journey made me realize this could be something I want to study). I want time to paint, write fiction, write my essays, do my classwork, blog, and maybe take part in that crazy free Introduction to Artificial Intelligence class from Stanford. Yet I work full time and want to be physically active too. Let’s find some tetris time baby.
3. Communication – I realize I suck at verbal communication, expressing myself and my desires (I think this is the root of my fascination with language, writing, and story telling). I want to get better at it and experiment with being open.
Those things all into the pot. Being aware of the caracol/spiral.
Hello October 🙂
I have an idea about the Quarterly Business Meetings (pft pft pft)
You already have Drunken Pirate Councils.
And Hello [month]
Wouldn’t it be easy to have a Seasonal Drunken Pirate Council that says Hello [season]?
Just a thought. Which can be ignored.
I’d like for October to be a Harvest Moon, huge and orange and heralding the good things we get from all our hard work over the past months. And pumpkin-flavored!
Hello, October!
October, you’re a beautiful month! Weather, sunshine, colored leaves. Stars in the Grass. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Things I like about October:
Nesting. The time to prepare for when its’s cold and messy out and we spend more time indoors. Making the house comfortable. Anticipating what will feel good when it’s cold.
Fun and frolic. Costumes, jack-o-lanterns, leaf-scuffling walks.
Beauty. At the parks, in the woods, along my street. Morning walks to collect leaves and then draw them.
Gwishes for October:
Appreciation for all the things I like about October; a growing list of things to love.
Rituals for the transition to fall.
A great costume. I’m thinking pirate – with a bandolier of dvd’s to represent being a software pirate, and my hair all braids and dreads.
Joy. Because there is much to enjoy and I want to fill my heart with that.
Gentle pleasures like hot tea and toast.
Renewed energy in my search for something I need and have not been looking for.
Time with MrB, doing things we love. Making memories. Taking pictures.
Ease and comfort.
Being like the trees, letting go of what I no longer need, to prepare for what is to come.
October, I’m glad you’re here.