New Year's Possibilities (Podcast Show Notes)

 

Thank you for reading this blog, the show notes for an episode of Stella Speaks, a DIY podcast about advanced BITCHcraft. Basic? Witch, please.

I begin each podcast with a land acknowledgement. Click here for more information about land acknowledgements.

Today's show is about the calendar New Year. Content note: Discussions of disordered eating and weight loss. Some resources and takeaways for you:

1. Consider calling your goals for the New Year "Possibilities" rather than "Resolutions." This honors and affirms your word and releases you from some anxiety about not "keeping your resolutions" and allows you to approach your goals with curiosity and freshness. (I discussed this in the context of The Four Agreements - Be impeccable with your word.)

Helpful resolution apps - Calm, Flora, Stickk, Fabulous, Bloom, Meetup, Zoom, and group chats. I'm not getting paid by any of this bitches, so no links. 

2. My goddess of the year was myself, and that brought me a lot of growth this year. I ended up working through a lot of destructive behavior patterns, particularly around my eating disorder, and I am happy, joyous, and free these days. My word for the year last year was trust, and the card I drew was Lakshmi from Kris Waldherr's Goddess Inspiration Oracle deck.

3. The goddess of this year is Brighid, and the saint of the year is St. Joseph. My word of the year is yet to be determined, and I will draw my card New Year's Eve in the labyrinth.

Some of my favorite books in no particular order this year included:

Watership Down

Recovery by Russell Brand

Yoga for Emotional Trauma

The Yamas and Niyamas

Total Cat Mojo

Atomic Habits

Why Can't I Meditate?

Attached

The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck

I'll be recording a whole podcast about books in a few days, so I will give more information about those later.

Benediction

A Snowy Morning on New Year’s Eve
By Cassi Nespor (Stella Gramina)

“Make it new,” Ezra Pound told poets,
And on this cold New Year’s Eve,
Mother Nature, the original Artist,
Artist of feather and granite and oak
Makes it new. A dusting of snow
Sweeps across the vast expanses of prairie
And the tiny hills. She glazes cars
And shades rooftops and paints power lines.
We humans, Her pet projects, long to make it new, too. We’ve categorized the seasons and carved Her masterpiece into cities and nations and months and minutes.
We long for fresh starts as we set
Resolutions and buy gym memberships and almanacs and Apple watches.
“Make it new!”we toast with champagne
“Make it new!” we kiss as the clock chimes.
“Make it new,” we cheer, confetti flying.
“Make me new,” we whisper at haggard faces in mirrors.
“Make me new,” we beg in dermatologists’ and oncologists’ offices.
And in the icy air our sighs rise up
Like incense, our bodies Her temple,
And we are answered.
She curves the crescent moon of Her silvery lips in silent response,
Fingerpainting a sunrise
Conducting a symphony of hearty winter songbirds, and
Making it gloriously,
Sublimely,
Dangerously,
Beautifully
New.

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