FRENCHIE FRIDAY: #springforward
I kissed a leaf
and noticed she'd
been devoured
sadness swept over
in seeing
such wounds
the leaf quivered
and questioned
confused by my concern
she said, you stare too much
at what's not there
neglecting all that is
I am the leaf, the tree
the earth
and all of time
I will be here
long after you're gone
little dove
It is I
who shall
kiss your wounds
I discovered this poem in a journal as I looked for a new notebook for new beginnings. I wrote it on day five of my #suvliving trip last year, and because I only used a few pages, that same journal is now what I'm writing in as I spring forward into the new season.
I love spring where I live.
Fauna revives herself quickly, with red buds boldly blooming and live oaks putting on new leaves before the old ones even fall off. Spring here is a spontaneous event. What was brown and dead on Sunday is now vibrant, green, and very much alive today.
January never feels like the new year to me. The end of March always does.
It turns out, the Roman calendar used to actually begin the year in March, only to add January and February later (at first they didn't even bother naming winter, which I totally get).
Why they moved the first of the year, I'll never understand.
My energy doesn't feel new until spring.
Since my incarnation day lands on the first day of fall, my half-birthday usually falls around the first day of spring, which adds a certain kind of magic to the renewal of spring. It's a natural checkpoint for me, an opportunity to take inventory for the next six months of the year.
So the #springforward energy of this season also invites me to #lookback.
Following suit, I've spent the last few weeks dreaming of elementary school, ex-lovers, and past adventures. I've cleaned out my garage and finally packed away items that I'd left out from the time living in my SUV.
Before this week, I avoided reflecting on the time living in my car with my Frenchie. Viewing the videos and reading my journal entries - it was painful for reasons I can't quite explain. I miss the adventure of it, and because no one (who can speak human language) shared the experience of it with me, I know that no one will ever truly understand how magical and transformative it was.
Recently though, I have renewed motivation to look back, perhaps because enough time has passed so I can experience gratitude more than loss. So I hosed down the cargo hitch, tossed out the moldy bag chairs, and could finally re-read what I wrote.
That's the magic of timing, I guess.
There's really no use pushing forward until it's time to let go of what's behind.
In fact, my research has taught me that's the only way to move ahead. Change is a combination of two energies: mourn and move on.
Mourning cleanses and clears stagnant energy to create physical, mental, and relational real estate for what's next. Once the boxes are packed, floors are swept, and the sage is burned, that emptiness is what makes space for potentiation.
Although the word potentiation currently has little red dots under it telling me I've misspelled it, potentiation is actually a very important word for every human to understand.
In neuroscience, potentiation is what happens when neurons create thicker pathways of connection between them. They start communicating more efficiently, which creates more potential you to feel, think, and act in alignment with those new pathways. Potentiation is what turns good intentions into good habits.
So potentiation is the practice of cultivating increased potential.
And you, Dear Human Being, have infinite potential.
Potentiation is the practice of increasing that potential.
When you're clogged up with old, stagnant, stuck energy, potentiation stops because you're too full. There's no space for anything new, so you can't spring forward no matter how many times you try to leap.
You lose potential to call in more and better experiences because you've used up all your potential on things that don't serve you.
Potentiation requires empty space.
To increase your potential, you can't keep filling yourself up over and over and over again, because there's only so much you can hold in your physical body, in your physical experience. If you want to follow this season's energy and #springforward into new experiences, you must first clean out the old ones.
This is why #springcleaning is a thing.
Spring cleaning is definitely physical: donating clothes, cleaning out closets, re-organizing the garage. But it also needs to be interdimensional - mental, relational, emotional, spiritual, energetic, etc.
Here's a simple practice can get you started.
PRACTICE: Leave Behind, Let In
In the evening, call in your helpers and spiritual teachers and write a "Leave Behind List." Write down all the emotional, relational, spiritual, and mental experiences you want to leave behind this season. Write down everything from unhelpful feelings (e.g., resentment) to past lovers' names, old wounds, nasty teachers, bad bosses, betrayals, etc.
Burn some sage or candles or play some singing bowls, then go to sleep.
You can keep your list, burn it, or throw it away. Do whatever feels right to you. If you decide to keep your list, be sure that the list is not kept in the same journal you use for the next list. Keep it separate and away from your daily life.
The next morning, call in your helpers and spiritual teachers again. This time write a "Let In" list. Write down all the the emotional, relational, spiritual, and mental experiences you want to let in this season.
It's important to use the words "let in." You don't need to call them in or long for them because they're already all within you, every single one of them hovering in the higher dimensions just waiting to drop into your life.
Burn some sage or candles or play some singing bowls. Dance if you feel called to.
If you'd like to perform an expanded version of this practice in person with me at a live retreat, be sure to you sign up for notifications here. I'll let you know when details are released.
First mourn. Then move on.
Leave behind. Then let in.
Look back. Then spring forward.
You can't have one without the other.
So as we #springforward into a new season, please do our global citizenship a favor. Take some time and take stock of what is no longer serving you. Surrender it up so that we may all move forward together, building a planet full of fully potentiated people.
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