An Epiphany: This is What Happened

The dream seeds you plant in the rich darkness of the 13 Holy Nights are like turbo-charged New Year’s resolutions. Rather than simply writing down a list of intentions you actually do the things, activities and practices you want to strengthen or develop in the coming year.... - Lara J. Day

My 13 Holy Days Experience

It was only yesterday, in retrospect, as I looked through my 13 days journal, that I realized what a rich, expansive and healing time my 13 days were.

Every intention that I set came to pass within that time. And I also acted on and experienced the readings I did for myself.

I made a list of everything and it was stunning! (39 items on that list)

Here are just a few of them…

(1) Cooking - I want to cook healthier meals, and real-er meals, instead of say, making a sandwich, or having one-item dinners. 

(2) Time with Friends - I want to spend more time with my friends.

(3) Time with my Son - As is to be expected, my son spends more time with his friends, these days, than he does with me. And he did a bit of a pendulum swing in making that shift. But I would like it to swing back toward the middle this year & begin to do again, some of the things we used to do together (eat a meal, watch TV, etc.

Here’s what happened…

Background - do you remember that on the first day of the challenge, I mentioned that we sometimes experience both financial & food insecurity?

As a result, we have made lots of microwaved one-item meals and have been watching TV separately on our phones.

So, just before the 13 days began, my friend and her wife told us they would be giving us food every month to help us, and one of them took us to a grocery store and gave us our first Christmas gift from them, a really big, two-cart grocery spend.

Then, at Christmas (the day after) they gave us a Roku TV and a pasta pot that comes with a strainer thing. We all ate dinner together, too, at their house.

My son and I watched TV for hours the other day, and we spent other time together too. Inviting people over is another 2022 intention of mine, and on Christmas day, we had his friend over and all of us cooked our dinner.

I also cooked most of and the healthiest part of the New Year’s Day meal at my friends' house and watched a movie with them after we ate dinner. While I was cooking the collard greens, cabbage, black-eyed peas and rice, I collected wishes from them and stirred some magic into each one.

The stirring in love and wishes is another part of my cooking intention for the year.

NOTE - I set my intentions before the 13 days, and set some that I forgot to write down - and still they came true during the 13 days, and some began even before then. Plus, it stunned me that without knowing anything about them, my friends enabled several of them for us!

But I was sick during the entire 13-day experience, and a little depressed, too. I always feel sorry for myself when I get sick.

So my felt experience of the 13 days was not very holy or sacred. And there were moments when I felt like I was failing by not doing it well enough (recovering perfectionist here).

But yesterday, when I woke up, and began to think about and itemize everything that happened, I realized that not only were the intentions manifested, but I also made some powerful shifts and healed and grew, etc.

And by the way, that happens a lot when I get sick. For most of this past year, my illnesses turn out to feel like they were initiations once they are over.

Also, I kinda forgot some of the guidance in my readings after doing them, and only when I came back afterward, did I see how they had guided me into action and had come true during those days.

So not only do I now see that even when I couldn’t feel it, my 13 days were successful, I also feel immense gratitude for them.
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Word of the Year

Do you usually find a word of the year and did you do it this time?

I normally don’t do that, but this year, during the 13 days. a phrase came to me.

​I had this vision of the divine leading me into 2022, my hands enfolded, and what I heard in my head was “trust Me.” So that’s my word (phrase) of the year.

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How You Can Experience the
​Same or Similar Benefits

(1) Seek spiritual guidance & intuition using this New(ish) Moon & Waxing Crescent energy for about the next week or so.

(2) Also, during that week, journal about your intentions for the year & get clear about what you want.

(3) Then begin to seed your year for the next week or so, until the Full Moon, by acting on the guidance & doing, living & experiencing as much as you can.

Example of how you can do that…

One of the things I want to be paid to do this year is tarot coaching/readings. So my son paid me a nickel and I did a “who you are being” one-card reading for him that was so on point, it surprised both of us.

Also, I am exploring the possibility of making & selling healing potions (i.e. essential oil body care blends). So I made some and gave them to my friends for Christmas. And had my son pay me for one (a nickel) which I made yesterday.

Now, if you have difficulty living anything out, and you think there might be something afoot, like negative core beliefs or fear, use the time after the Full Moon for doing some work on letting go.

Announcement

I believe that because the earth settles in for a long winter’s nap, resting and slowing life down a bit are important things for the human part of the earth to do, too.

I intend to spend the next 3 months or so resting, creating lots of cozy, hygge moments, and continuing to seek guidance for myself. This is the time to nurture your dreams about what you want for the year, but not the time to run hard after them.

And in my work, my mission is to help women uncover what is holding them back (negative core beliefs, unhealed experiences, etc.), and encourage them to slow down, rest and use self-care practices for letting go of the past, and for spiritual and emotional healing.

But because I have been working harder than I intended with this blog challenge, I am going to cut my posts back to 3x/week, starting next week, and won’t be posting again until Monday.

See you then!

Love, Jeanine
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