by Larry-Michael and Becky Lynn Hackenberg
A Weekly Almanac Guide
Plan, Do, Finish, Rest.
Living in Harmony
With Earth
Weekend of
January 27-28, 2024
Earth-Sun-Moon Notes
In A Nutshell…
The Full/Doing Moon occurred Thursday, January 25 at 12:54 p.m. EST. The first Full Moon of the year, it is named the Wolf Moon as it was the time of year the wolves could be heard howling in the night. According to the National Park Service there is four times more howling in January-February than in May. Other names used by Indigenous First Nation Peoples are Cold Moon, Freeze Up Moon, Ice Moon, and Severe Moon.
Full Moons are good for getting things done and active vacations. Here are the 2024 Full/Doing Moons in case you want to plan ahead: February 24, March 25, April 23, May 23, June 21 (Summer Solstice June 20), July 21, August 19, September 17, October 17, November 15, December 15.
Last Weekend
January 20-21, 2024: Planning
A gentle consideration of what is to come was the agenda for the Planning Moon phase.
This Weekend
January 27-28, 2024: Doing
Do you ever feel like hitting the “Pause button”? Life can feel like too much to handle, situations may feel more complicated, and we may feel like we just don’t have it in us to carry on. It’s not just you or me- it’s Winter. Nature itself has hit the Pause button. Every natural process around us has ground to a halt with no energy generation happening. It is no wonder we feel it a slog to get anywhere or get anything done.
This is not a time to increase but to conserve, and nourish ourselves to build up our mental, emotional and physical resources. Cold naturally contracts so expansion feels out of sync. It’s why drawing inward feels so good right now. We sleep more, stay in more, eat warming stews and soups, and snuggle up on the couch more. This is not laziness. Rather, it all has the combined effect of nourishing and restoring us and strengthening, not depleting, our reserves.
Lack of sunlight is challenging for many. Taking Vitamin D, sitting in front of a light box 20 minutes a day, and getting to sleep early enough can help maintain circadian rhythms.
So, in these depths of slow Winter, let’s enjoy the pause. If we maintain a gentler approach to activity, pay attention to what we take in, and allow for rest, we will be ready for when Earth-energy inevitably begins to rise.
Next Weekend
February 3-4, 2024: Finishing
It is a good time to “sort ‘n’ pitch” and clear out some clutter to make it through February.
Musing…from Larry’s journal
Whenever I am starting something new in my life, I generally try to put on clean clothes. It is not clear to me how I came to have this habit. I think I learned it from living: at home, grandma’s, dating, playing sports, or perhaps, simply being on Earth.
The general intended characteristics for my clothes are: a pleasing smell, good fitting, color and texture intended for friends, and a general characteristic of my overall sufficient shapeliness (usually something properly cared for), and/or from my behavior.
Seems odd to be talking like this. Where did all this come from in my life? Well, it is undefined except carried on to me by my mother, father, aunts and uncles, my wife, friends, oddly occurring teachers (!), my work, and also others, strangely my dogs, cats, and birds (not with clothes, but fluffing up their sleeping places to wake up with orderly fur and feathers, their version of clean clothes.)
For me it must come not only from living, but from some personal admiration of how my shape pleases me. Everyone’s personally intended shape, so broadly used around Earth by every living thing, has a source, perhaps somehow, from Earth itself—enchantingly wonderful, interesting, and often orderly, clean, and oddly beautiful!
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