The Littlest Birds
sing the prettiest songs*
Hello and Happy Monday!
Today’s inquiry:
Guidance for cultivating relationship and creating flow throughout the week with projects, with resources, with money, with health and with people
This inquiry goes straight to the way I think about Qi, a word most commonly translated as energy but one that I believe is better understood by saying it is a relationship. Nothing living exists outside of relationship. The question at any moment is really only what we are in relationship to. And flow, what I would say is the experience of Qi, is the result of staying in relationship in the moment, finding the places in your own experience that are alive at any given time. To support us in that endeavor this week, we received Hexagram 62 - Xiǎo Guò - Small Traverses also called Exceeding Smallness, and Preponderance of the Small with no changing lines. No changing lines means that this guidance will be appropriate for all the choice points you encounter this week.
Hexagram 62 is all about paying attention to detail, taking notice of each moment and where it arrives in your senses, in your body, in your awareness. The purpose is not to make small things into big things, to glorify the detail, but rather to keep contact with the earthly energies, those energies that seem ordinary but ultimately have great power. The power of these earthly energies is the power of modesty, humility and integrity (here’s recent post on this topic). Modesty is the idea that you notice even the smallest detail. Not that you make yourself small but that you do not attempt things larger than your capacity. Even more the suggestion is that you know your own limits which is the same as saying you have integrity. Humility is that more than just knowing your limits, it means you actually accept your limits and work within them.
Sometimes your tasks and your limits are obvious. Then, the question becomes can you be content to fly within those bounds? Can you be cheerful and easy with the most ordinary of tasks, the details of a life that are in need of tending. The danger comes when your tasks and limits are not obvious or when you engage activities that take you beyond your limits. The guidance here this week says do not attempt such things. If you have grand visions, save them for a more propitious time. Tune in to such a vision, but do not try to implement it this week. Allow such visions to lift your spirits, but keep your feet on the ground, so to speak. Keep doing the things that will nurture the ordinary and build resource for larger projects that you can attempt at a later date.
In some ways, this may sound quite simple, but it does mean foregoing a kind of drama and entertainment that comes from trying things that go beyond your current limitations. Can you skip the drama? Can you give up the entertainment value of big and exciting ideas this week and find contentment with the smaller tasks of life. You are vulnerable, sensitive even to every nuance this week, but it will be important not to allow that vulnerability and sensitivity to predispose you to emotional bigness. Can you keep the emotions in bounds, expressing yourself through an acute attention to detail, a truly sensitive care for yourself and your world? This kind of care will produce great benefit for you this week, easing you through each and every relationship and project with a no fuss, no muss sort of energy.
This week’s essential oil is Celery Seed. Celery Seed is an uncommon essential oil with a spicy sweet scent. Celery Seed will energize contentment, allowing for optimism even in the midst of many commitments, many details, and many activities. It will siphon off any obssession with the past, consolidate your commitment to the vision of the moment and bring you back to earth if you have extended beyond your capacity. Celery Seed can bring your heart back to life if you feel burnt out and encourage you to offer yourself care even as you acknowledge the imposing needs of the world. Just a drop to inhale will settle your heart and bring you to ease and grounding in the body.
Enjoy the week and sharing updates right here is heartily encouraged!
*The Be Good Tanyas - a song to lend some joy to the process this week.