Hello, you.
It’s Monday evening. And I am speaking to you during the last few hours of March. I’ve moved into my studio room and put down my meditation blanket on the floor. I’m sipping a cup of tea, surrounded by twinkling candles, and the sun is setting outside my window. I wanted to meet you in this quiet, sacred space tonight. I don’t know why I chose the floor instead of my desk and chair. But, I did. So, welcome. Let’s spend a few moments together in community, even though we are meeting in different places and at different times. Wherever you are, I hope you are feeling a sense of peace and calm, at least right now.
As March is ending, I want to take some time to pause and be present in this moment of bidding farewell to this month of wild, chaotic, awakening energy. It’s been a whirlwind of a month and I need to end it as I began it. Grounding. Rooting. Anchoring myself.
So, join me in a few moments of silent reflection and release.
Take a long, slow, deep breath in. Gather in all the air you can. Feel your belly expand. Pause and hold your breath for a few seconds. Let all of the moments, memories, and feelings of this month swirl around and within you. Release your breath slowly. Let your shoulders relax. Drop your jaw. Settle. Soften.
Let’s do that again.
Take a long, slow, deep breath in. Gather in all the air you can. Feel your belly expand. Pause and hold your breath for a few seconds. Let all of the moments, memories, and feelings of this month swirl around and within you. Release your breath slowly. Let your shoulders relax. Drop your jaw. Settle. Soften.
Say your farewell to March. Give thanks for all of the moments of this month. The days of wild wind and days of warm sunshine. The month that is both savage and serene, as winter finally gives way to spring.
We have now entered the season of life and growth. The days grow long and the flowers begin to bloom. Color returns to the forests and parks and gardens. Nature wakes, birds sing, and small animals start to flit about. And, if you’re at all like me, your energy is continuing to rise as well. There is a restless, excited, anticipatory beat in your heart. There is a yearning to get up, get out, and embrace life.
As we release March, I find that, after the work day, I no longer want to snuggle and rest. Those cozy, winter evenings are long gone. Instead, now, I want to be outside. I want to meet friends for dinners and drinks. I want to take walks and move my body. I want to have solo dance parties and organize my home. I want to make plans and lists of things to do. I want to soak in art and go to concerts. I want to meditate and create things. I want to take photos of all of the beauty of this season. I want to be aware of how amazing it is to feel alive.
So, my friend, in these waning minutes of March, it is time to turn to the soft, fleeting, life-giving, lovely energy of April.
Hello, April
April arrives on Tuesday - tomorrow - and I feel very ready and giddily excited about entering this sacred month of blossoms and blooms.
Once knowns as Aprilis, the name April comes from the Latin word aperire, meaning 'to open' - a reference to the opening of the buds and blossoms of spring. It is a vibrant month that embodies the essence of the season of renewal and rebirth, as all of nature comes alive again after the sleepy, dormant energy of winter.
April is also a month that has long been associated with the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love and fertility, which are also themes and moods felt all month long. So, for me, it only makes sense to be to see April as a month for romanticizing all of life and for giving thanks for simply being alive. And, in a world that seems to be filled with so much pain and despair right now, I say that we definitely need to create more romance and beauty in our daily lives. For ourselves and for each other.
Creating a romantic life
Romanticizing everyday life is as simple and as personal as you wish to make it. For me, means embracing slowness and finding beauty in every little thing. It means dropping into that feeling of being alive.
It’s like…
Listening to albums of jazz or bluegrass music. Wandering under cherry blossoms. Stopping to smell the flowers and touch the tiny buds. Walking through trees just beginning to come alive again. Hearing the birdsong through open windows. Sipping coffee in the sunshine. Dancing under the moon. Walking hand in hand with a loved one. Baking a lemon pound cake. Sitting at the breakfast table for hours on Sunday morning. Watching clouds drift by. Sitting under a blanket as the rain patters on my windowpane. Drawing, writing, painting, reading.
Lunar living
And, for me, one of the ultimate ways I romanticize my life is gazing at the moon and living in rhythm with the lunar cycles.
This past weekend we had a new moon and solar eclipse to help us move into the energy of a new beginning. For me, this new moon served as the threshold for resetting and preparing for the month of April and the true start of spring.
I spent an hour or so practicing a cozy new moon ritual on new beginnings by the ever inspiring soul journaling sessions by
on Saturday morning. I meditated, listened, visualized, and pulled the oracle cards for each week in April. First, I wrote whatever came up from my soul as I pondered what new beginnings my soul is calling me to call right now.I’ll share a little of what I realized with you. I immediately thought about my claim to beginning a new era back on Halloween/Samhain. Just after my 50th birthday last autumn, I felt a shift and knew that I was entering a whole new, magical phase in life. Something refreshing, new, empowering woke within me. But, it was just a spark, an idea, a seed. Since then, it has been resting, rooting, gathering and holding energy under the earth during the magical darkness of winter.
But, now, on the cusp of April, this idea of a new, empowered, witchy era wants to rise up and come to the surface.
It wants to come into the light, grow and bloom, and spill into my life.
It wants to be made real.
Embodied. Lived. Practiced. Taught. Shared.
And, then, as I turned over the card for April and the 5 cards for the coming 5 weeks, it all fell into place.
In April, the journey of becoming me and embodying my new era begins.
The anchor card for this month is the TEND card. And the message is simply this: to tend to our newly reborn souls. To tend to our life, caring for it so that we make and create and embody the life that we are called to live. What do we need in order to care for our selves, our souls, and our lives? How can we embody the seeds and ideas and dreams that we planted back last autumn?
The answer to those questions came as soon as I turned over the card for this week. As we step into April, we begin with the SOW card. A card for planning, intentions, and optimism.
As I thought about embodiment, romanticizing my life, tending to my soul, and sowing the seeds of what I want to grow and become this year, I realized that the most important part of sowing is that it involves action.
Now that we are entering April, the quiet, resting energy of winter has gone. Now is the time for action - for blooming and blossoming. We can only live our highest life and fully soak in the beauty of this month if we rise up. We can only grow and live by rising up from our slumbers and beginning the work of the season of spring. And April is the beginning of the season of action and life. If we want to experience her renewal, rebirth, and romance, then that requires us to act.
The time of dreams and visions is complete. The time of waiting and gathering is over. The time of ideas and intentions has come to a close. Now is the time for creating and doing and making and living. Now is the season for embodying and becoming. The seeds are breaking forth, sprouting up, and coming to life.
And the first step is to make plans and lists.
So, this week, I encourage us all to welcome the soft, gentle, rising energy of April by getting busy. Let’s rise up from our dreams. And start to make plans of how we can achieve them. It’s time to take all of our ideas of how we wish our life to be and put them into action. It’s time to trust in the wisdom we received during the winter and use it to create the life we are meant to live. We don’t need to just wish for romance and magic, we can make it real - right in the middle of our everyday life.
So, this month, my friend, follow the pace and example of nature. Birds and bees begin to fly about, water rushes in the creek, the earth softens, flowers bloom, the sun warms, the earth comes alive. And the earth is calling to you and me as well… to move about, to dance to the music of the entire cosmos, to hug the trees and talk to the flowers, to shine our own warmth to anyone we meet. To dance, to laugh, to make every moment magic. Because, if there is one thing that April brings, it is the magical mystery of renewal and rebirth.
Celebrate your rebirth this spring. And embody those dreams you planted back when it was cold and dark. Rise with the sun and bloom with the flowers, my friend. Step into your new era this April.
Until next week.
xoxo. liz.
April’s playlist
It's time to rise, open up, and return to life. April is fragile and fleeting, so don't miss one beautiful moment. Here’s a collection of music to help us soak in all of the bright, life-giving vibes all month long.
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