new normal Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

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New Moon and Lyrids

I know; I’m sorry. I should’ve written a day or two ago about the Lyrids – the meteor shower that is peaking tonight. I’m hoping you may have seen their arrival mentioned on social media. But if you didn’t, and if you’re actually saner than I am and therefore sleeping as I write this, take heart. Even though they’re peaking tonight, there should be a fair number continuing to streak through the sky over the next few days.

And if you happen to be an extremely early bird (you know who you are and I know you’re out there!), it might be worth your while to nip outside in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday the 22^nd to ‘see what you can see.’

The good news is that, since we’re in new moon territory (reaching its fullest darkness at 10:26 p.m. EDT tomorrow), the stars – and any passing meteors – should be brilliantly apparent to our searching eyes.

New Moon in Taurus

Before I even read this thoughtful essay by Chani on tomorrow’s new moon, I was feeling a palpable shift. It’s weird (in a good way) when all of a sudden you just sense a difference in the way things feel. Sort of like a weight has been lifted or a blockage removed. Believe me, I’m hoping those feelings persist.

And while it is true I know only a smattering of astrology, I must admit that the conjunction of tomorrow’s new moon with Uranus (and as I said, in Taurus), makes me feel as though the stars are predicting that new ways of being and living here on Earth are demanding to be ‘unearthed.’

We keep hearing that people want to ‘return to normal.’ And if you’re like me, you see articles and essays and advertisements all over the place demanding us to decide whether we even want to return to normal (whatever that is or was) and perhaps even more importantly if we can return to that so-called normal.

Old Normal

Probably the first thing we need to do, if we’re honest with ourselves, is figure out just what in the world we consider to be ‘normal.’ That’s the ‘old’ normal, which we can figure out by describing (in a journal or wherever you routinely catch random thoughts and wrestle them into submission) how our lives used to play out on a daily basis.

And when we write out the details of our old normal, it’s essential to pay attention to how we feel. How is our body reacting to our description of our old normal? With warm fuzzies of affection? A knot in our stomach? Dread? Sadness? Anticipation?

New Normal

After we’ve described what our lives used to be like, it’s important to describe what we crave, deep down, to truly have return to our lives. (Perhaps, if we’re honest, for the first time.)

Tomorrow, and the next day, are especially powerful days for us to envision what we want to create in our lives and plant the seeds in our consciousness and intention to create that new reality.

If we don’t dream big now, when will we allow ourselves to envision our new normal? When will we ever have another opportunity like we’re being offered right now? Almost everything has come to a screeching halt. We’re seeing the precariousness of so much that we believed was a juggernaut of indescribable power.

Things are changing. It’s up to us to make up our minds that we’re not going to go back to business as usual. It’s a new moon; let’s dream a new world into being.

(T-584)

Everything’s Relative

The winds that arrived last night with great bluster and clattering of wind chimes brought with them a remarkable change in temperature. Suddenly, today, it felt like January – in Pennsylvania. Not January in southern Florida, like it’s felt for a couple of weeks.

Every time I walked outside today, I caught my breath. I braced myself. My jaw clenched against the chill. The wind might not have been as insistent as it was last night, but it still had a point to make: It’s winter.

Funny thing is, the temperatures today weren’t even that raw. Not for January in Pennsylvania, anyway. They were seasonal. They were normal. They were even still a scootch or two above average, truth be told.

But the way we bundled ourselves up to take a walk earlier this evening, you’d think we were stepping onto the tundra.

What We’re Used To

I’m noticing this same ‘relative’ response to what’s being exposed at all levels of our government at the moment, but especially the federal level. If you read the more in-depth articles or look even slightly beyond the day-to-day headlines (which are bad enough), it’s hard not to feel waterlogged by the tsunami of corruption, lies, and outright greed and self-dealing that’s taking place right in front of all of us.

But the weirdest thing is how – quite literally – almost every day some new corruption is discovered. And it’s almost always something that, had this same action or relationship been revealed ten years ago, it would’ve consumed our discourse. We would’ve been so outraged that people we’d elected to represent us would behave in such a manner that, almost assuredly, those involved would’ve been called to account and whisked out of town.

Knowing What Is

I’m not going to harp on this; it’s late and I’m tired. I’m not even quite sure why I’m writing about this tonight. Perhaps it’s the cold slap of wind across my face when I let Sheila and Spartacus out to tinkle before bed.

What does it say about us and our country that our new normal is a daily serving of corruption du jour? How has our new normal become complacency over blatant lies spewing out of the highest and most respected office in our land?

What does it say about us that we now become excited when one single member of a political party that used to claim to be the standard bearer of moral integrity and rule of law stands up to this liar and says the obvious. You know, something like, “Gee, maybe it would be helpful to hear witnesses in a trial – witnesses who were expressly prohibited from testifying at an earlier proceeding by the person accused of abusing his power in the first place.”

It’s just weird when a position so obvious, so logical, so utterly essential and inherent to a fair and just proceeding would now seem outrageously risky and bold.

I, for one, abhor this new normal. And I only hope with all my heart that this new relativism is swept away by the winds of change.

(T-679)