Ghia – I spent the first half of the November lunation gathering thoughts about gratitude and discovered alchemy, which I am here to share on the November full moon. In this episode, I also share what I have learned from the waning side of the moon cycle.

Web site of Tricia Walker https://www.triciadwalker.com.au/

Hooray.

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Ghia here.

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I'm this week.

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So most of the creative, spiritual

journey podcast, where Judy and I talk

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about those things that bring us joy.

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For me, I find joy by

connecting with nature.

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Connecting with Jesus Christ and our

heavenly parents seasonal living.

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And all those bits of magic and wonder

I come across while navigating this

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remarkable journey we call life.

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Here we are at the November full moon.

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And I promise to share with you what

I learned about gratitude during

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the first half of the November.

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Lunation I'm calling this my moon

harvest, As in what I harvested while

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tuning into the cycles of the moon.

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I also plan on diving into what to do

with the second half of the moon cycle.

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I want to start my thoughts about

gratitude by talking about a

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beautiful ritual we have in our lives.

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That is the ritual called prayer.

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Yes.

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I love to think of prayer as a ritual.

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The definition of ritual is a

ceremonial act or an act regularly

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repeated in a precise manner.

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I remember while growing up,

I thought there should be more

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ritual in our worship services.

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I don't know where this desire came from.

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Was it books or movies or

just my own imaginations.

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I'm not even sure what I wanted.

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Incense candles.

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I don't know.

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It wasn't until many years later that I

finally began to see the ritual that was

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right in front of my face the whole time.

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The sacrament, baptism

the laying on of hands.

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It's all ritual.

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No shadows or magic.

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This ritual is sunny, white, and clean.

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So common in my life, it seemed ordinary.

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But, oh, the mystery,

the mystery is there.

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Isn't it.

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What is the priesthood?

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What is the power of God and

how does it play out in my life?

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Hmm.

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I love a good mystery.

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So while I have been gathering

clues, I have learned, I have grown.

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I understand more.

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And I have embraced prayer as a ritual

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If I want to light a candle and

pray next to my crystals, I can.

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I don't generally.

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Still, I do have some significant prayer

rituals, such as connecting with my body

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through breath and yoga before I pray.

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And one of my favorites.

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Writing down my prayers,

long hand in a journal.

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But I'm getting off track.

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Let me get back to gratitude

and my prayer ritual.

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I was taught to pray by opening my

prayer in the name of the father.

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Expressing gratitude, asking for

my needs and wants, and then ending

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in the name of Jesus Christ, who

was our Emissary with the father.

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As part of my gratitude exploration during

this November, lunation I checked with

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the church website about how to pray.

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I love what I found.

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It talks about opening your

prayer and then it says,

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quote, Speak from your heart.

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And share your hopes and desires as

well as your worries and problems.

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You can ask God for help

direction, forgiveness or healing.

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Whatever is on your mind, bring it

to him, acknowledging that his wisdom

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and timing is greater than your own.

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And then it says.

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Express appreciation to God for

all the blessings in your life.

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Even challenges can be blessings.

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Gratitude helps us feel humble.

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Which keeps our hearts and minds

more open to God's answers.

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I love this explanation of prayer.

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Speak from your heart and

share your hopes and desires.

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You don't have to start off with a

list of things you are grateful for.

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As I was raised to think.

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Just start talking about

whatever is on your mind.

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Honestly, I think this is

something I have naturally slipped

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into for my personal prayers.

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I can't help it.

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I just start talking about

whatever's on my mind.

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I always get around to gratitude.

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I just don't know.

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We start with it.

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But I have to say that in

my more formal prayers.

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I still love to start with gratitude.

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To me, it sets the whole

tone and mood for my prayer.

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But the part of this quote I wanted to

specifically talk about is the last line.

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Did you hear it?

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Gratitude helps us feel humble,

which keeps our hearts and

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minds opened to God's answers.

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It's important.

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Wherever we put it to include

gratitude in our prayers.

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To me.

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Gratitude is like alchemy.

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It changes me.

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It's an elixir for life.

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The quote said we moved

from gratitude to humility.

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I call this an alchemic transformation.

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Let's look at that transformation

in a different quote.

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This is a talk by Bonnie D Parkins.

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She says.

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Gratitude is a spirit filled principle.

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It opens our minds to a universe

permeated with the richness of a living.

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God.

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Through it, we become spiritually

aware of the wonders of the smallest

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things, which Gladden our hearts

with their messages of God's love.

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This grateful awareness, heightens

our sensitivity to divine direction.

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When we communicate gratitude, we can

be filled with the spirit and connected

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to those around us and the Lord.

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Gratitude inspires happiness and

carries divine influence and quote.

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I think those are beautiful words

and they sum up part of the reason

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I've even been doing this podcast.

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To open my mind to a universe permeated

with the richness of a living.

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God.

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And I love that the smallest things

are messages of love from him.

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But did you hear the alchemy?

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Gratitude transforms to happiness.

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The more grateful we are

the happier we will be.

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Let's see what kind of alchemy we find

in the words of Dieter F Oop, Dorf.

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He says.

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How blessed are we, if we

recognize God's handiwork in

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the marvelous tapestry of life.

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Gratitude to our father in

heaven, broadens our perception

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and clears our vision and quote.

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See.

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More alchemy.

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Gratitude broadens our perceptions

and clears our visions.

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And how about this one?

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This is what David Steindl-Rast

a Benedictine monk learned

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during world war two.

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He says.

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It is not joy.

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That makes us grateful.

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It is gratitude that makes us joyful.

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There you go.

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More alchemy.

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Gratitude.

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Turns to joy.

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I believe our daily ritual

of prayer and gratitude.

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Alchemizes our lives.

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here is another idea about

gratitude that I want to share.

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This is from Robin wile Kemmerer,

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who was part of the whole people and

wrote the book, braiding, Sweetgrass,

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indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge.

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And teachings of the plants.

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She says.

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Cultures of gratitude must also

be cultures of reciprocity.

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We are bound to each other

in a reciprocal relationship.

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All beings have a duty to me

and I have a duty to them.

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If an animal gives his life to feed me.

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I am in turn bound to support its life.

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If I receive a stream's

gift of pure water.

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Then I am responsible for

returning a gift in kind and quote.

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I love this idea because I am

so often grateful for food.

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But am I grateful for the plant

or animal who produced that food?

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Am I grateful for the stream or the

cloud that provided our drinking water.

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How much more powerful

would the alchemy be?

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If I could deepen and

reciprocate my gratitude.

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And here is a part of the book.

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I really love.

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Robyn explains that when we experienced

gratitude for the natural world, we

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will realize that we are provided

with everything that we need.

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In fact more than we need.

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That's the alchemy.

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Have you ever dreamed of

having everything you wanted?

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You can, we all can.

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It's called gratitude.

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When we are truly grateful, we become

full and don't need anything more.

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But more keeps coming.

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I love this alchemy.

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That changes.

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My constant wants into fullness.

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The alchemy of gratitude.

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That is what I harvested from the

full moon while exploring gratitude

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during the first half of the November.

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Lunation.

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Now as.

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promised, I want to talk about

the second half of the moon cycle.

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This is where it gets fascinating.

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you will recall that I talked about

the new moon as a time to turn inward.

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Uh, time for introspection,

a time of new beginnings.

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And contrast the full moon.

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Is a time of peak illumination.

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It is a time of high energy.

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This might be when we feel the most

social or when we finally have the

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motivation to clean the drunk drawer.

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It's easy to discount the

energy of the full moon.

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It doesn't really do anything.

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Let me tell you that my husband,

who was an ICU nurse for 25

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years will swear up and down that

the full moon effects people.

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On the full moon, there were always

more patients in the hospital

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and they tended to be more crazy.

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I don't know why, but the full moon

brings out the crazy in people.

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So, depending on how crazy

you are, you might want to be

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cautious around the full moon.

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This is why some people say the full moon,

isn't a good time to make big decisions.

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I think all of this is

interesting to know.

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But I want to focus on the

time after the full moon.

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the time of declining light as the

moon approaches its dark phase.

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This is the time when we use a bunch

of rewords reflect re evaluate,

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recalibrate, reframe, revisit, rethink

renew recharge, rejuvenate, rearrange,

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reduce recede return revert, redeem.

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It's super cool to note that the meaning

of re in Latin is again, We do it

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again and again, the cycle of the moon.

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Can you hold that in your mind, this

idea of rethinking and reflecting

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during the time of declining light.

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This time of rest and introspection.

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I just gathered together my

recent thoughts about gratitude.

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The thoughts I generated during

the time of growing light.

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And here I am on the full moon.

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Sharing those ideas with you.

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Now.

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As the moon begins to darken.

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It's a time to reflect.

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Hm, alchemy.

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Great.

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How am I actually going

to apply this concept of

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alchemizing gratitude to my life?

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It's great to think about.

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but if it isn't applied, what good is it?

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I may have to reevaluate and rethink

habits, thoughts and behaviors.

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Let me share some thoughts with

you about the waning light of the

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moon from a wonderful Australian

woman named Trisha Walker.

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I'll include her website

in the show notes.

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Here's what she says.

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The dark doesn't get the respect.

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It deserves.

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All natural cycles.

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Follow the same rhythm.

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Birth growth, full bloom, harvest

decay, death, and rebirth.

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Everything waxes, then it wanes.

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But somehow we believe

ourselves exempt from the cycle.

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We expect ourselves to be

in perpetual full bloom.

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In an attempt to reap

a never ending harvest.

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We don't respect the decay and death

phase, the yin, the retreating.

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Inward focused waning,

dark half of the cycle.

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But the dark half of the cycle

is as important as the light.

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Decay is as important as growth.

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Being dormant is as necessary

as being in full bloom.

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You can't have one without the other.

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By always being busy where working

against nature's natural rhythm.

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And consequently, we are

exhausting ourselves and nature.

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We have limits.

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Nature has limits.

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Nature knows how to pace herself.

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You don't see her trying to

be in bloom all year round.

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Mother nature knows the time we lay

dormant is as important as when we bloom.

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And quote.

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That really speaks to me.

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I do feel like our current world expects

us to be in full bloom year round.

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And of course that isn't good for us.

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I truly want to find ways to slow down.

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Take breaks even if only short pauses

during the dark time of the moon.

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I don't know exactly how this

is going to play out for me.

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I'm still working on the concept.

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But I do have a couple of ideas I

want to implement starting today.

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One is to be mindful of how I'm

feeling energetically and noting

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it on my calendar, along with where

I am in the cycle of the moon.

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I simply want to notice any correlations.

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See if the moon cycles are

playing out naturally in my life.

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And second.

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I walk almost every day,

regardless of the weather.

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And on these walks, I generally

listen to a podcast or book on tape.

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My plan for the indefinite future.

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Is to take three days over the

new moon and walk in silence.

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With only my thoughts as company.

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I will have to be very deliberate

about this, or I know I will forget.

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Woopsies guests.

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I didn't do it this month.

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I don't want to do that.

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So here I am making a public announcement.

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I hope this will hold me accountable.

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So those are my moon cycle intentions.

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In closing, because I talked about

gratitude and the moon in this podcast.

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I have to share one last quote

from braiding sweet grass.

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This is a small portion of

what is called the honed in a

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Shoney Thanksgiving address.

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It goes like this.

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We put our minds together to give thanks

for our oldest grandmother, the moon.

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Who lights the night sky.

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She is the leader of

women all over the world.

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And she governs the

movement of the ocean tides.

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By her changing face.

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We measure time.

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And it is the moon who watches over

the arrival of children here on earth.

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let us gather together our things for

grandmother moon together in a pile.

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Layer upon layer of gratitude.

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And then joyfully fling that pile

of things high into the night sky.

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That she will know with one mind,

we send greetings and thanks

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to our grandmother, the moon.

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And quote.

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Oh, I love that layer

upon layer of gratitude.

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That's how I want to approach the moon.

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This amazing creation of

Jesus Christ and how I hope to

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learn what she has to teach me

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Duty, and I know your time is precious

and that you have many choices.

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We love that you have chosen to

walk with us for a few minutes.

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As we talk about the joy

we have experienced while

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navigating this journey of life.

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If you liked this podcast.

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Thank you for sharing it with a friend.

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And it's my prayer that during this

magical time of the harvest and the

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Thanksgiving holiday, that you will

gather layer upon layers of gratitude

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and joyfully tossed them into the world.

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Nama stay.