Lunar Love Letter 🌒 - November 13, 2023 — Beaver Moon*

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Important dates this cycle (in EST): 

Lunar Cycle Duration: 11/13-12/11
New Moon: 11/13 ← we are here
First Quarter Moon: 11/20
Full Moon: 11/27 Beaver Moon*
Last Quarter Moon: 12/5

Happy new moon to your beautiful heart 💜

How’s this past lunar cycle been for you? Did you ask yourself for anything? And if you did, did you grant that wish? What was that experience like? 

I’d love to hear from you if you’d like to share 💌

For me, honestly, it was exactly what I needed — though there was a good part of it that felt like shit. Just absolute shit. And I can see exactly what I got out of that.

About a week ago, a friend said to me that they believe everything doesn’t happen for a reason, but there’s a reason everything happens, and I’ve been chewing on that heavily ever since 🤯

Because yes — indeed. We’re really good at looking back and discerning meaning from events and feelings and finding transformative pivot points. It’s really beautiful.

And that’s how I feel about this last lunar cycle. I was specifically craving ease, simplicity, my own voice, and creativity, and I got every single one of those things because I actively chose them. I sought them out when I could and I took actions that aligned with those things. And in that way, I really showed myself love.

I hope you have that same feeling about yourself 🫶

—

This lunar cycle, we invite in light from the beaver moon* — the last one before it gets (maybe) really cold and before the winter solstice. This is a really murky time of year as we seem to lose time from a combination of busyness and capitalism.

Economically, we are constantly being rushed to the next money maker 💸  — there’s little to no time to meander and appreciate the present and actual seasons. I saw stores putting out Christmas stuff the day before Halloween, and I felt crushed. And yet we must find a way to cope with all the outside pressure to movemovemove 🏃 instead of nurturing our natural urge to start slowing down 🦥 this time of year. 

And so I want to offer you this as a way to straddle both worlds (as is our reality): 

Let’s pace ourselves

This is a time to focus on building up our hearths, so to speak — to invest in our own warmth and resources so we can actually sync with nature (because we’re nature too). The temptation is to get caught up in the hullabaloo — the rush and the purchasing and the internet-popular presentations of life — but can we not? Can we purposefully pace ourselves? 

For me, that means diving more deeply into what I’ve already got at my disposal. Instead of seeking new and more, I want to integrate what I already have more intentionally — everything from knowledge to relationships to household items. 

Practically speaking, this looks like revisiting some books 📚 I have that I hadn’t realized complement each other so well, tweaking my process to store frozen cookie dough 🍪, and brainstorming on how to reuse/reinvent ♻️ some things I’ve accumulated.

Too often we think new and more is better, but is it? It can really just add to our list of responsibilities or things to clean or things to forget we have, ya know? And are we ever really satisfied when we drive this road?

Instead, we can choose to reinforce and strengthen our existing resources — to stretch them and use them creatively, and perhaps in more fulfilling ways — and in doing so, we can create a cozier corner in our world. One that feels more welcoming and more magic or more loved 💫

What’s something in your corner that’s worth revisiting and surfing a few layers deeper? 

Share with me in a reply or comment 💌

🪄May this lunar cycle see us express gratitude through our actions ✨

*The moon names and phase details given here are as given on the Farmers' Almanac website. There are many other moon names and stories from other cultures that are not included here, but I encourage you to do your own research. It’s fascinating!

All resources mentioned in this newsletter are included for research purposes only and are not affiliated with Zenful Mindings LLC. 

photo credit: Vladyslav Cherkasenko on Unsplash