At the start of the year, we get the reminder to speak our emotions in a way that seeks maturity through communication and honesty, authenticity. When we do share, it creates ripples both in ourselves and those we are speaking to. We need to allow those ripples to flow and give time for them to take shape and disperse. We are reminded not to just jump in and flounder, but to take time and consider, partly by taking a pause for something relaxing and introspective, like a bubble bath. From there we can contemplate that which might divide our heart or our soul, and gives us a sense of fear at the unknown. Because when we are at peace and contemplation, we can allow ourselves to dance above the water of the ocean, to reach moments of enlightenment or great understanding. Speak boldly so that you may find maturity and settle the dichotomy in your soul.

When what we say is influenced by what we see of the world, we are like a boat being influenced by the winds, the emanation of others as they buffet our sails. Some push us ahead, some work against us. Some cross us and force us to reposition or take our sails down completely. We then are reminded that when we do still our waters, we should do so with intention. That doing it out of fear, fear of the new or unknown, leads us to a place where we have no grounding, nowhere to anchor ourselves as we work to understand and ingest this new information that challenges our worldview. Sometimes the world emits toxic sludge into our waters. Venomous, it seeps into us and we are faced with its consequences. Like a factory spoiling the river, we must navigate around it. And sometimes it is us who spills that sludge from our own emotional factory. How are we handling the production, and the sludge it can create? For we are the director as much as we are the orchestra. What we will can shape the lives and actions of others, just as their will can play out on us. In the end, we are the ever-burning flame, and all action, all power, comes from within us. We have the power to shape our actions and the world around us.

You are a vault that touches heaven and earth, a cathedral that is a sacred and whole space, into which you are deserving of a respect that should fill you root to rafters. As the wind and storm gathers realize that you deserve to feel the joy of riding that wind. You deserve a moment of happiness that fills your sacred space, the laughter of yourself and others because you are not alone in this. Your space is filled with the instruments that can give sound life, that can fill your space with melodies, though which you choose will affect what you feel. You give voice, air, life to your emotions, so choose wisely, pick carefully, feel deeply. For these storms flow from you, not in spite of you. You are the source of the joy and despair that fills your heart, and you can tame the storms within when you allow yourself to fall into the wind’s embrace. Don’t find drama in the storm, don’t feed your resonance with ill fitting songs. Wooden structures reverberate and amplify sound, just as your sacred space takes form and reverberates and amplifies what you fill it with. Like a wooden shrine, cared for through time, you are constantly being refitted and replaced to remain whole and healthy. Guard those relationships which allow you to feel whole and connected. Be shaped by your hand, not by others.