It’s my day with the Warrior in the Temple of the Senses. Today is also the New Moon which marks the culmination of Mardi Gras leading into tomorrow’s Lent. It’s the beginning of a New Moonth that is already filled with the essence of Sacred Regime, a specialty of the Warrior.

It is the Warrior who is my guide to my physical health and well being. He is also my guide to taking action to create the future. These two responsibilities complement each other since taking action requires energy, especially as I move out of the lighter energies of the invisible world and start moving around in the denser reality of physical earth.

I can think about things all day long, but to really take action, that takes energy and courage. Raising this energy and courage is part of my Sacred Regime.

I borrow my understanding of the Sacred Regime from Jonathan Zapp of Zapp Oracle. A Sacred Regimen is a formal agreement I make with myself to carry out a service to enhance my life and world. With a traditional like Lent this service will involve giving up habits and indulgences that don’t serve me. The other side of this ‘sacrifice’ is committing to practices that enhance my life such as Beeky yoga, ha ha.

The Sacred Regimen involves changing my relationship to energy in some form be it money, work, love, food… In the case of the Temple of the Senses it’s about the energy of food and exercise. The Sacred Regimen is an act of will applied to areas where I would otherwise be ruled by habit, addiction, and conditioned forces. The Sacred Regimen is a way to create my own initiatory experience to transform my life and world.

The beginning of each New Moonth and Season is my cue to review my Sacred practices, and for this moonth I also have the cultural energies of Lent that have been associated with the Sacred Regime for centuries.

For the past several months I have been content with the positive impact of my Beeky (Bikram yoga) practice on my life. But now I am starting to get a little antsy.

We are all different in the ways and means with which we care for our mental, emotional and physical health. For me in the realm of the physical I need more exercise than many people. My mind is quick quick quick and my body is slow slow slow. My work is very cerebral and I do spend a lot of time on the computer and phone hatching my creative plans. So exercise is crucial to move out the energies that get stagnant in my body.

(Digression alert!)I look at the energies of the physical body through two lenses. The first is the five senses, which I activate daily with my Timespace Traveling Chicken. The second is through what Chinese Medicine calls chi. I once took a chi gong workshop and the instructor shared that there are three kinds of limitations with chi. Stagnate and deficient are the two that I remembered. The third I couldn’t remember, so I named it myself. I call it Dragon chi, the energy of the limiting thoughts the mind believes about what is possible for the body.  I then named the other two obstacles Tiger and Phoenix, stagnant and deficient chi respectively. (end of digression!)

For myself, my main Enerchi challenge is that of Tiger or stagnant chi. I have tamed this Tiger by finding an exercise program that I love that keeps me moving. Beeky is both my physical and inspirational practice at the end of the day. A beautiful Sacred Regime lit by firelight from a potbellied stove. I love this ending to my day.

But that means I no longer practice dance in the morning. And I have noticed that without this jumpstart to my physical energy my mornings tend to unfurl slowly. Not a terrible thing, these slow moving mornings, but now that the days are getting longer and morning is coming earlier I would like to try to accelerate a little faster into my day. My mind believes I am a night owl. But I love the morning too. Can I become an early bird? Experiment! I am going to add my kettlebell practice first thing right after I activate my timespace suit for the next 30 days. Takes about 10 minutes and I will see if that jump starts my energies.

For my deficient chi I would like to add more living food to my diet. Probably my worse eating habit is that I like to eat tortilla chips  — with salsa, with hummus, with tuna  — you name it. I like the crunch. And sadly vegetables don’t do it for me. I’ve always wanted to try making some of the raw food crackers that use veggies, flax seed and nuts. I don’t eat all that many nuts and it might be a good way to add them in my diet.

So here’s my plan. Kettle bells first thing for the next 30 days. I’ve moved them into my bedroom so I can do them before I have time to get busy with anything else.

I am also going to experiment with raw crackers and kale chips as the snacky food in my diet.

And so that is my Sacred Regime for the New Moonth.  How about you?

Costum-ification is my game of deciding who I am becoming to create the future.  This becoming is made more easy by asking for help. I believe we have many visible and invisible helpers around us at all times. It’s our job to activate them into playing a bigger role in our life.

Now the Lover is my main go-to guide for bringing in my visible allies. But when it comes to invisible allies this is when I turn to the Shapeshifter in my inner Theater of the Heart. Imagining and believing in the untapped characteristic in me that can help me become the future is the superpower this realm brings.

How it works is I look around at the people I think would be the most helpful to achieve my future. Often this is someone who has already done what I want to do and could be a mentor or role model for me.  And I am not limited by actually knowing this person, or even this person being alive at this time in history. I’m calling upon the essence of this person. Someone who has already become what I want to become. They know how to do it. They ARE it.

Sometimes it is a famous person. Sometimes it is a mythical person. Sometimes it is just an inner guide that I have a sense of. We all have them..  guides. And we can have a lot more if we remember to ask.

Shakespeare said there is more to this heaven and earth than are dreamt in our philosophy. He wasn’t kidding. We are surrounded and connected to all of life. Every atom of it is our partner. Which means we get to use this energy to create the future. It’s just sitting there (vibrating there?) waiting for us to set it into motion. Into the path of Becoming.

So here we go. I want to become the kind of person who has launched a Secret Book Club and Wizard Apothecary. This is a big week for it, what with our tiny preview of our new store and the Secret Book Club parent and kid planning meeting.

What kind of person would be most helpful to be by my side for this? By my side I mean that I can talk to him or her, even if it just looks like I’m talking to myself. (Now you know what I’m doing when it looks like I’m talking to myself. I’m talking to my invisible guides.)

And I also take on the character too. How many times have I watched a great actor play a role so believably in a film or play that it drives the story forward? The very best films and plays are character driven, not plot driven. So once I decide the plotline of my story then I decide the very best character (qualities-essences-personality-persona) that I can be to navigate the story.

And here’s the cool part. My Mind is busy trying to map the plotline to the future, but the real magic happens when my Heart starts to play the part I have chosen. When my life adventure activates unknown or dormant characteristics in me that is when my life changes for the better. And that is when I have the power to change the world.

This is the most important and mysterious piece of becoming the future. Every opportunity and every challenge can be skillfully navigated because I have everything within me and around me to handle it. Whatever it is.

So my character that I am going to play this week is one that I frequently adopt, and it just so happens to be someone I know. It is Havi Brooks from the Playground. She has created vibrant online and offline spaces for creative synergy and is both highly competent at it, and also incredibly playful.

And even better she has a wonderful persona that she herself assumes that fits perfectly for my own Plan-it world’s Sea of Creativity: The Pirate Queen. My Secret Book Club kids already know this as one of my personas. (along with Gypsy Queen, Sea Witch, and Fairy Queen… my persona in the Wizarding, Merfolk and Fairyland realms respectively.)

So the Pirate Queen is going to stomp authoritatively and collaboratively through this week, getting Creative Doings done, and inspiring collaborative play amongst all my fellow pirate ship mates. Fun will be had; all the while I’m becoming the future.

This is a pretty big planning week as we also have a new Moonth starting on Tuesday. The extraordinarily festive moonth that is the start of the Lunar New Year of the Dragon is coming to completion. I can feel the powerful energy of Dragon preempting the sweetness of Rabbit.

This has been a very good moonth. I am settling in to new levels of sacred practice with my Timespace Traveling Chicken and writing. I have always written every day but now I am writing down my thoughts in a fairly coherent form that I can share. The print version of the Plan-it is coming along. I am wrestling with several formats. Even knowing that simple is best, I still wrestle. But that is part of the unique Me-ness of Me. If I created it, it has a layer of complexity, that is a Me-ism.

Art NOW, my soon to be nonprofit for community based art events is official as of the end of this week and so is the Wizard Apothecary. We launch on March 2, first doing a special invitation party with the Secret Book Club kids this week. I had so much fun yesterday reviewing all the materials from the Secret Book Club. We have some amazing adventure that will come to life in the store and on the web.

Which is my usual trigger to roll right into my Future Looking through the Telescope. I am supremely excited about the Secret Book Club and the Wizard Apothecary. Our first preview happens this Friday and my goal is to create a rich Treehouse experience and also begin our online presence. A lot to do. Right now I am creating the Secret World Passports, folded sheets of paper enclosed in a rich red passport cover that delineate the journey of each month. Here kids get to track the realms they are visiting, the books they are reading, any Power Pets, Presto Manifestos and other magical elements they are working with.

So I  know Secret Book Club and the Wizard Apothecary will take up a lot of my time this week and will be my Big Destination. But there are lots of other fun things to do as well, many smaller destinations that matter.

For my Inspiration Destination I’ve completed my Crossroad Chicken and Campfire Chicken cards, a big help in this game of timespace traveling… especially the journey into the past. So what comes next? Using them. And sharing them with friends. I’ll use them every day for new moon to new moon.

In my Imagination Destination, The Plan-it is my magical object of imaginal beauty. I love it. I’m going to talk with Shannon about turning it into an interactive e-book. Wouldn’t that be something? And the Future Me who isn’t so very far down the path says: ‘Plain ebook to start.’ Oh yes, right. Simple. Is there a 12 Step program for people who love to over complicate?

In my Heart Destination I’m going to be refreshing the entire website in the coming week. I want to write my Why statement. Why do I Plan-it? I realized that other day that I still stutter and ramble through my answer for a good long while whenever I am asked. I think it would be very helpful for me to know the answer to the question Why Plan-it? and it might be interesting to you too.

In the realm of Love, my Destination is to go on a real date. With a man. Yes. All this talk of flirting and crushing is well and good, but good golly, I’m a grown woman. I can be a little direct too. Who will I ask out? Haven’t a clue yet, but I’ve got 30 days to figure it out, ha ha.

My Senses Destination is unclear… I have a few days to think about my moonth destination. Today I go to a Bikram posture clinic so maybe something will be ignited from it, some new depth in the poses. or maybe not. My diet could always use some tweaking and then there is the whole weight training piece. Or maybe it is time to go back to dance. Whatever it is, I’m not worried. I feel physically pretty content, just like last moonth.

The usually Pirate Shipping mashup on the Sea of Creativity. The Women Will Rock Concert to produce and Oregon Caves stuff to edit. But the real enthusiasm is with that Wizard Apothecary. It is time for me to get serious about all the play that fills my life. That is my real work — play!

Prosperity Destination? I still haven’t done my Mint course. Pretty hilarious that I have been talking it up and not actually doing the deed. I have to follow though, we are well into the first financial quarter of the ordinary world. Its time to settle into my new year money practice. How can I report about it if I don’t?

So onward! Into the Future. And just a quick look behind me to say thank you to Past Me and all the people, projects and places that I have loved and who have loved me. I appreciate you all.

And since I am rather enamored with time-tracking and calendars —  so much so that I have created my own Plan-it — this realm seems like it would be a no-brainer for me. But the reality is I am someone who tends to focus more on beginnings than endings. I need to take special care not to just plow ahead into my next adventure. I need my Campfire Chicken.

And yet how many times have I started doing my daily celebration with the Campfire Chicken to find it quickly go from talking about where I was to where I am going? Some people consider the ability to let go of the past quite healthy. But for me who tends to live almost exclusively in the future, a little time for looking behind me and making sure I’ve got all of me in Present Time is more than important. It is crucial.

I have big dreams and big visions and my ability to stay future -focused means that I don’t always learn the lessons from the Past and it also means that I don’t full inhabit the Here and Now. And truly, things happen in the Now, not the Future. Learning from the Past and leaning into the Future are both important things that I can do to create the Future and recreate the Past. But I have got to be in Present Time to truly do either.

Brings me back to my friend Param’s Galaxy Time. I have finished the assignment she gave me to create Galaxy Time cards, cards infused with all the creative things I can do in Present Time. And being me, I took it into my own creative process. My Galaxy Cards are Plan-it Cards that say ‘Costum-ification’ and ‘Talk to a Guide’ and ‘Go Treasure Caving.’ All the game pieces of Plan-it You have their own card.

Part of the reason I created my own Plan-it was for me to figure out how to follow up with things. How to live fully in the present moment and make things happen. So this challenge I have with staying Present with the Campfire Chicken needs their own cards. I’ve drawn out each Campfire Chicken card; they look a lot like flash cards, big pictures and big text. I pull a card and answer its prompt.  Here’s the prompts. You’ll have to imagine the pictures.

This week’s Inspirational wonders? Seeing through the eyes of an almost two year old. Reading John Green’s beautiful The Fault is in Our Stars. Standing in the middle of the Arcadian Ballroom and imagining a gigantic Playground.

Thinky things I added to the Oasis of Imagination? A new neural connection to dying from an illness gleaned from John’s book. May it bring me more compassion and empathy. And I learned about kiosks, how to set them up in airports, go figure. And I learned how to find my way around some new places around Portland.

What got stuck? I got stuck somewhere between Portland and Ashland. I get stuck every time. My physical body seems to be able to travel much faster than my spiritual one. My heart and mind were in Portland for two days after I returned to Ashland. I’m just settling back into ordinary reality. Time and kindness to me is my destuckification tools.

Who I loved and who loved me? I loved my sister as much as she will let me (she’s funny that way.) And I loved my little nephew. He gave me a new name. Anya. Doesn’t sound a thing like Cynthia but it reminds me of one of my favorite characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer so I’m keeping it. And I loved my mom. But I always love my mom, that’s not news.

Warrior Moves I made? Just stepping outside of my ordinary life for a week and trying to make sense of it all.  Reminds me that really there is no sense to be made. We are here to love one another and create things. As long as I remember those two things I will be fine.

And that is my Campfire Chicken.

But I did do something very Valentine-like later that evening. I visited my friend Linda who is producing a documentary about love. specifically about love later in life. We ate chocolate dipped strawberries and talked about her vision for her film. It is a topic for which people are quite passionate, both male and female. Mostly it is the people who are not in relationship and who wish to be who are abuzz about it. But everyone, even married couples have an opinion. Her question is this: Is deep lasting love tenable/viable at midlife and beyond?  If so how and why does it happen?  If not, what then? 

I find myself ponder this as I consider the possibility of how different love might be for me now than at earlier times in my life. I am older, wise and more myself. I think of these  as assets in my relationship game. The reality is that romantic partnership has never been a priority for me in my younger life, and now that I know myself better perhaps it could be. If I wish for this to happen I must make time for love. And that includes passion. And play.  Very much like I made the Creative Playdate my priority on Valentine’s Day. Now it is time for a Passion Playdate to take center stage.

Just as play brings out the best in my creative work, so too does play bring out my more romantic side. The Lover in me seems to be evoked more through what is light and lyrical then what is serious and concentrated. To charm the Goddess of Love and Beauty, I can call on her child, the mischievous and erotic Eros. Here’s his story:

In Greek mythology, Eros was the god of erotic, sexual love. Though the myths vary as to how Eros came to be, one version presents him as the son of Aphrodite and Hephaestus, the deformed ironworker of the gods. Eros serves as an attendant to the Goddess of Love, harnessing the primordial force of love and directing it towards mortals. For Romans, he became Cupid, and today we envision chubby cherubs armed with bow and arrows of love. For me I’m considering a date with Eros.

Whether I am single or partnered, Eros needs to be cultivated. I know this. And I also know that nothing evokes pleasure and play in the realm of love more than date night. Here I am on a Friday night, the classic date night of the week. How will I spend it? A Passion Playdate.

A Passion Playdate is my way to get in the energetic flow around romance and Eros. Since I am not (yet) in a romantic relationship then this means I will look for friends and family to share these outings with, playing my way into romantic alignment by practicing dating. So here is a playful list of 9 Passion Playdates according to the Plan-it realms.

9 Passion Playdates (to share with a lover, friend or family member)

• Inspiration Date (the Wizard) – seek out a sacred shrine, a natural wonder, a field trip that connects you to a sense of inspirational awe and meditate there together, or take a Wizard Walk together
• Imagination Date (the Seer) – learn something together; take a trip to a museum; view a documentary; attend a lecture or class together; explore a really great bookstore; read to one another
• Heart Date (Shapeshifter) – take a healing, journal or dream workshop; partake in flowing movement like folk dancing or swimming; play music together; enjoy a pampering session with massage or other body beauty therapies
• Love Date (the Lover) – set a weekly romantic date: mark it on the calendar, use your art of ritual, dress up, go somewhere new, or do the things you love to do together: dinner, movie, dancing, walk in the park, art opening; plan a romantic, seductive evening, paying attention to all the romantic accoutrements. Light candles, eat sensual delicacies, play sensual music. Act like this is a time of discovery, when your lover-like behavior determines whether or not you will get lucky. Flirt and tease. Wear sexy underwear. Think of yourself as sexy, and project this out. Be seductive, flirtatious
• Senses Date (Warrior) – partake in adventure, sports or physical activity of any kind, such as whitewater rafting, hiking, tennis, camping
• Creative Date (Muse) – take a trip to a cultural event or museum; spend creative time together making arts and crafts. I always think of the pottery scene in the movie Ghost for this one ha ha.
• Prosperity Date (Genie) – enjoy a trip to a luxury restaurant; do something that makes you feel prosperous, such as shopping for one luxury item to share, harvesting berries, mushrooms or fruit at a u-pick farm, or learning more about financial planning together
• Celebration Date (Timekeeper) – play playful, seductive games; throw an intimate party; enjoy a trip to the zoo or an amusement park, improvisational theatre, double dates with playful friends. Or make a lazy Sunday date: don’t do anything but enjoy the newspaper and each other
• Place Date (Servant) – take a trip to a site of beauty, power or sacredness; shop for nesting supplies; cook together; do a home improvement project together; paint; garden; volunteer together; share a special home evening in which you fix dinner together.

And so how did my Friday Date night go? A spontaneous dinner out with a girlfriend to eat sushi at Kobi’s a beautiful intimate restaurant in downtown Ashland.  Beauty, check. Laughter, check. The sensory delights of handcrafted foods, check. A good first effort for my practice Passion Playdate. I’m well on my way, creating space for love.

Today’s prosperity lessons came from surprising places. My sister’s tiny son was the sole male escort for our female tribe. Both sisters’ partners were manning the home fires. So Finn Abraham Etter, age almost two (this near two-ness is illustrated by raising up the pointer finger of each hand) was our guy and I spent a lot of time viewing the world through his eyes.

Funny how amazing the world becomes when you are closer to the ground. All the luxuries of a resort become enchanted when you’re (almost) two. For one, there is opalescent tile that forms a perfect path around the pool. You can spend long luxurious stretches of time circling its shiny surface in a moving meditation. And then there are stone waterfall showers that rain down water on your head. Somehow I had become immune to the magic of a shower, but Finn reminded me of its enchanting wonder.

And then dinner and breakfast in front of that enormous stone fireplace. Food is so much more delicious if you augment your taste sense with the other four. You really look at the food, and you touch it too, and smell it and then you make many happy ohhs and ahhs to activate the sense of hearing as well.

I often get confused in the realm of Prosperity more than any other. I feel content until I want something I don’t have that I can’t (as of yet) afford. Then I am baffled. How to hang out in the space between being and becoming. And having too. How often have I wanted something, until I actually got it.

I had a lot to be grateful for this week and during this mini retreat. And this gratitude seems to come with conflict too. That Goldilocks struggle with proportions of good that are not too much, not too little, but just right. It’s very hard not to compare; to not feel that I have more than many and less than some. I have friends who jet all around the world. And then I know people who struggle to meet very modest standards of living. And somehow I think the answer to moving gratefully through these opposing world experiences is those young wonder-filled eyes.

Here nothing is taken for granted and nothing is by rote. Everything is a full bodied experience. We are abundant in life. Even in the midst of lack or limitation. Tossing smooth stones into a bubbling pool of water can be an incredibly satisfactory experience. The stars on a clear night are jewels that shine for us without fail. A big dog crossing our path is a moment of thrilling adventure.

Remembering to view the world as if I am seeing it for the (almost) first time may be the secret to unconfuse me. I don’t think the Prosperity Bazaar is about material possessions at all, and yet sometimes it is. And sometimes I want what I don’t have. Weird.  And okay.

On my drive home to Ashland I was listening to an old U2 CD and was happiest singing at the top of my lungs these lyrics:

What you don’t have you don’t need it now
What you don’t know you can feel it somehow
What you don’t have you don’t need it now
Don’t need it now
It was a beautiful day

And I guess that sums up my prosperity lessons from  an (almost) two year old.

The day began with an Enthusiastic where the Pirate Queen explained her expanding vision for the Playground and the epic sized Arcadian Ballroom for which she just took out a lease. A creative co-op for Shiva Nata, Projectizing and sharing our gifts is going to be in the Creative Makings throughout the month of March. Our job as Enthusiastic-ees was to listen to this vision and be enthusiastic at the moments we felt so inclined. It was a fun hour of yaying and imagining creative possibilities that are well on their path from inspired idea to creative reality.

It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes for the Sea of Creativity:

“Make visible what, without you might perhaps never have been seen.” Robert Bresson

The Pirate Queen is well on her way to making seen a new vision for a more creative Portland. Yay! And it makes me think of my own creative visions and of yours.

The life role of work and creativity is the means whereby we share our gifts with the physical world. We each have the need to create, to fulfill our unique vision of creativity, perhaps stimulated by living in such a tremendously creative world. Yet for so many of us that time and energy is directed into fulfilling someone else’s vision of creativity. And that works fine if their creative vision matches our own… but for how many of us in traditional work-for-pay jobs is this true?

The old paradigm work-oriented power system (game) says that other’s (i.e. the boss, shareholders, board of directors, a handful of those in charge) vision and purpose are more significant and powerful– more important — than ours. In actuality, our unique vision and purpose is of different but equal value and significance… without our doing it the world won’t have it. It won’t come true.

I have a responsibility to share my gifts, and so do you.  The sharing of our gifts at the very least will change our lives – it might even change the world. I’m recommitting to sail into the adventure of my creative working life, seek out the dragons and sometimes rough sailing weather to discover the positive direction of my own rogue energy, my unique creative expression.

The Enthusiastic has re-inspired me to make seen my most creative visions. And to be of greater support to yours too. Yay! Let’s create that more beautiful world!

For myself I see the Lover and Warrior as opposites,  and the theory is that opposites attract. So today I am doing the equivalent of the Great Ducking Out at Thanksgiving by participating in a Valentine Playdate at the Playground. And thinking a lot about partnership, both creative and romantic.

It’s been a fun and festive creative time; I have been herding my many tiny sweet Projects into some kind of corral so that I can tag and track them better. A very Warrior-like action to take on this Plan-itary dedicated Warrior day. But there is also this sweet cultural energy that suggests that today is also the day of the Lover, otherwise known as Valentine’s Day. Sometimes the Plan-it weekdays mingle with the bigger cultural landmarks and they shift and change. I personally love the symbolism of the Lover and Warrior sharing a day. The active questing Warrior energy in support of the attractive magnetic Lover.

I am surrounded with beautiful feminine energy this Valentine’s. I am also doing an evocation to draw in more male energy. I’m looking at my Patterns. My Patterns are my partners… they are almost spelled the same. My Patterns create everything in my life. Much of my creation is delightful and some of it is limiting me. I’m ready to make a leap into something new. Perhaps to engage my active Warrior in my quest for romantic partnership.

With the Warrior on the case my mission is to develop my capacity to love, just as I would a muscle or a skill. Love is an action, a practice, and a process. Love is a verb. Verbs are action words. Claiming the action of love I become an active participant in love.  I say ‘Hello’ to strangers, offer heartfelt appreciation of my lover, family, and friends. I give out the loving feelings inside of me instead of hording them within.  I am in training for Love.

My Love Training has three basic steps. Step One is to believe in Love. Step Two? Believe in my ability to give Love. This makes I am an emissary of the Lover. I am her intermediary in the world. The Third Step is to believe love is available to me from other people. This is the faith that the Lover resides in everyone. She’s there, just as surely as my heartbeat. My task is to recognize her, and be open to her presence in even the most unlikely places.  Maybe not that bar, ha ha, but somewhere off the beaten track of where my life usually takes me. I wonder where? Romantic adventure calls.

Threshold Guardians tend to gather at the borders of my mental realm. These are the thought patterns and belief systems that I hold about what’s possible for me in the world and in my life. A week-out-of-timespace seems like an opportunity to challenge these Guardians and enter into a new level of adventure. But to do that I must be alert to the disguises that a Threshold Guardian may wear.

Threshold Guardians guard the entrances in our life for a purpose. They test us to make sure we are truly ready to enter the new energies of our life experience. How often are we turned away from a life experience because of a Threshold Guardian? For me the answer is often. When I come up toPortland, I run into my best disguised Guardian, the one that seems to be looking out for my energetic well being.

I’ve had two run-ins with a Threshold Guardian in the first 24 hours of arriving in Portland. In the first I was asked to go to a place I have never been to meet someone I didn’t know. The part of me that likes to settle in and be comfortable leapt to the forefront and suggested that it really wasn’t worth the energetic investment to step out into this new adventure. Instead I should rest after my long drive and acclimate to my new world. Comfort, security cocooned me. And I found myself sinking into a comfortable stillness. Rest. Recharge. Be. this seductive voice crooned.

But my new experiment is to query the voice to find out what is really going on. Instead of automatically turning back from the new experience I made a bargain. Just an hour of time. Make the effort, take the risk and just go. An hour and then you can settle in to your comfortable cocoon.

I jumped in the car and through the magic of signposts and landmarks the drive that I thought would take me 20 minutes ended up only taking 10. I found a parking space in the general vicinity of where I was going easily and decided to park and walk the rest of the way. Well wouldn’t you know it, I was two houses down from where I needed to be. Entering in over the threshold I met a kindred spirit who put my heart and mind at rest. I was at home away from home. Two hours later I returned to myPortlandbase, following an equally inspired pathway home. I had challenged a Threshold Guardian and found the treasure cave. The treasure? A new friend and a new location upon my Map when I come to Portland.

Then this morning, with the confidence built up around my latest adventure, the call to adventure was to journey to a house I had been once, to meet with a newish friend and go to a dance experience far across town. This time when my Threshold Guardian whispered ‘Too hard to find the house, too early to exert all this energy, not a good time to try out a new practice, stay home’ it was much easier to override this energy. Off I drove, a couple of twisty turns and then a stop to query a conveniently stationed crosswalk guard (literally a woman with a bright vest and flag that helps kids cross the street), I found my way to the home, was driven to the dance space and entered into a new practice. The morning ended with a breakfast out to talk with the teacher about all the things I most love… creativity, travel, shamanism and the hero’s journey. An adventure in dance and connection ensued. And such has been my day.

My Maps are just guideposts for the adventure that is my life. I am always being called to unknown adventure. And I can always turn back. But when I say yes, often magic happens. These were small sweet adventures. Nothing harrowing or remotely dangerous, and yet I did step outside my ordinary reality to expand the boundaries of my life. And life rose up to meet me and smooth my path.  I am very grateful for this.

So where does this leave me? My trip to Portland is at the half way point. I have some big adventures for the next two days, but I am very aware that I will be stepping back into the timespace of my life. Back into ordinary reality.

Or am I? I have so many wonderful opportunities before me, and if I look at it all through Galaxy Time then it is all possible. I am becoming the future. I am stepping into a place of service. Can I help all the people I want to help? Can I be of service to the change I most wish to see in the world? The change where we all love support one another and we all make sure that all gifts are given and received.

I am ready to enter into Galaxy Time… being and becoming in this moment and always. Becoming the change that changes my life to change the world.

Funny the uncomfortable feelings that arise. I start almost immediately counting down to when I will return back to ordinary routine. I both love the change and also feel incredibly awkward in the unknown.  This is when I discover if my sacred regimes and routines are really comfort zones of habit. Can I inhabit my time and space from a more spontaneous place without giving in to rudderless paralysis when I am outside of my normal routines?

Using my Telescope I remind myself of why I am here.  I’m in Portland with the intention of being of service to my mother, sister and tiny nephew.

And there are a few magical elements swirled into the mix. Dates with Portland friends, both known and new. A Secret Playdate. And a trip to the Bonneville Hot Springs resort to celebrate my sister’s bday. Lots to see and do in this adventure. Here’s my week outside of time and space but still within the Plan-it Days of the Week.

Moon day. How will stepping outside ordinary reality impact my day of braintraining and strategically and imaginal planning? Conveniently I’m going to visit a new Portland friend and attend her NIA class at  Lenora’s Ballroom. This sensory oriented mind body practice includes levels of study from white to black belt. My class will be led by Sapphire (all this color coding!). And then Monday evening I will be working with Larisa to tape her shiva nata practice. So I will be immersed in practices that stimulate new neuron pathways.

Warrior Day. Valentine’s Day falls on the day of the Warrior this year.  I’m entering into the creative play space of one of my favorite muses, Havi Brooks and her piratical duck Selma. I’ll be hanging at the Playground. Exit ordinary reality stage left at Alberta St. My inspirational intention is to bring Plan-it You, the Wizard Apothecary and Temenos Wild projects into the creative play space to see how these projects can be woven together.

Muse Day and Genie Day include a birthday adventure for my sister’s birthday to Bonneville Hot Springs. Time with family to relax and renew and celebrate. I want to make this time magical for my sister. I also want to see if this is the magical portal into a deepening intimacy in our relationships. I’m taking my truthteller cards to stack the deck (ha ha) in my favor.

Thursday evening I will make the pilgrimage back to my ordinary life. Well, as ordinary as a life can be that includes Secret Book Clubs and Wizard Apothecaries.

As viewed from my Sunday Telescope I see plenty of opportunity to allow new inspirations to fill me in the coming week. And it reminds reluctant Me that sometimes it’s great to break up my habitual motion. I can get so locked into my daily patterns. Rituals can become unconscious habits if I become mechanical in their practice. What does my mind, heart, body truly need? What does my work and money require? These are the questions I will ask in this week-out-of-timespace. And perhaps the answers will surprise me. I will keep you posted.