First Dark Moon / New Moon of 2011

Ooh, nice timing, Moon! My simple ritual is just what I need to begin a year in which I'm intending to release and let go of things.

I was thinking today that I don't have to only let go of Big Stuff (like Fear, Worry, Slothfulness, 2,000 books), but I can also feel great satisfaction in letting go of or changing little things.  The Big Stuff is worth focusing on, but I suspect that working on little things will also lighten and brighten my life, as they add up.

For example, I had a cutting mat hanging on the side of a work table and I was always bumping into it, and it just irritated me. Yesterday, I took a couple of minutes to do something about it, hung both it and a mini-ironing board in a very accessible and yet out-of-my-way spot. I am perhaps inordinately happy about this, but happy I am!

So this year at Dark Moon/New Moon, I'm going to do the work I need to do on the major things that aren't serving me well, and I'm also going to find some wee little thing to change or finish or let go right then.

Oh, and today I pulled out the fixin's for another freeform woven/crochet wrap and got started putting it together (all the woven pieces have been done for months.)

This is to be Spring Meadow Shawl - tri's woven from my stash of the discontinued Noro Blossom (#5.) It feels really good to get started on this. It feels really good to walk around my work area and not keep brushing against that cutting mat!

Dark Moon / New Moon My Simple Ritual

My word for the year is Focus.
One of the things I'm focusing on is keeping things simple. Sometimes it's as simple as my just wearing the Dark Moon Goddess pendant I made during this moon phase. Keeping myself present and observant of the energy of this time - energy that speaks of doors closing and others opening, great circles, endings becoming beginnings...

Today, though, I'm going to breathe mindfully for a bit. Ground and center.
Light one of my new beeswax candles.
Then I'm going to let something go for the Dark Moon. It may not be something big.
But it will be something that does not serve me well, something I want to be done with. Gone.

Then for the New Moon (which my iTouch MoonPhase app says officially occurs at 9:52 p.m. EST) I'm going to bring something new into my life. Or bring new focus to something that's already in my life but doesn't get enough attention.  It may not be something big.
But it will be something that serves me well, something I want more of.

That's it.
Blessed be.