Monday Manna
Good morning, friends, and welcome to a new season…
Yesterday was the autumnal equinox, officially marking the start of fall. While it remains 80 degrees around here, I have to believe the earth is turning deep within…soon, we will see it. For now, we sense it.
I’ve been thinking a lot about cycles and seasons as I continue to heal from my concussion, but especially, because of some ancient wisdom my dear friend, Jenny, introduced me to in the early days of my recovery.
Om ritam namah….Sanskrit for I am one with the sacred pulse.
Jenny has been heroic in her own very long, painful, slow, healing journey, and such a model to me of resilience and trust. She is also a beautiful writer, and generously agreed to let me share the profound message she wrote to me while sharing this phrase….
“I'm in a business/leadership community and the phrase "Om ritam namah" was shared (Sanskrit). "I am one with the sacred pulse." A reminder that life is not linear or exponential. We are not machines. We are not an assembly line. Nothing in nature is this way….
All of nature exists and grows in cycles. With each breath, the body expands and contracts, each day the flowers open and shut, and the animals hunt and sleep. Each month and season and year, there are an inhale and an exhale, and layers of these cycles happening all at the same time.
Mid-summer, I became very impatient, frustrated, and resistant to my limits, pushing myself pretty regularly, but experienced frequent, long, painful symptom crashes as a result. This reframe of feeling connected to nature's cycles is helping me embrace my need for frequent rest, providing the extra motivation I need to set those timers for both activity and rest periods.
This is my sacred rhythm, this is what my body needs, and I will join nature in the inhale and exhale of healing and growth.”
Thanks to Jenny, I am leaning into the earth and my body in a fresh way, both for my healing journey as well as the inner desires I carry for change and growth this fall. Soon, there will be a great shedding as leaves turn color and fall, winds cool, and harvest happens. As it does, all of nature knows this is part of the sacred pulse.
On a smaller scale, I’m trying to view my own breathing that way. With every breath, we are taking something in, letting something go. And when we pause — focusing for a moment, listening— we discover rest is something we carry in our very breath.
As autumn begins, I wonder what invitations you are sensing in your own life for this expansion, contraction, and change? Little ways you can honor and allow that pulse to beat within your own heart….
As Ecclesiastes reminds us, “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” This is all part of it. Whatever it is you’re facing, frustrated with, celebrating….it’s all part of it.
So, I will try in earnest to make Jenny’s prayerful declaration my own, and I hope you will share it with me…
This is my sacred rhythm, this is what my body needs, and I will join nature in the inhale and exhale of healing and growth.
A Prayer
On that theme of breath and change, here is one of my favorite prayers from my book, Ash and Starlight: Prayers for the Chaos and Grace of Daily Life…
When I need to breathe and live into something new
Spirit of Life,
Teach me to breathe…
to gulp with desperate surrender
your life-giving energy,
not out of fear,
but because I am listening
to my primal hungers
and rejoicing in them.
The breath you give me in
this moment is a messenger,
telling me how right now
I am reborn.
I am cared for.
I am called…
Charged with the call
to channel my breath,
your life-force,
toward a gasping world.
Your breath is eternal –
never stopping,
never returning empty.
It continuously flows to
spread life and promise
if I will be a river rather than a dam.
If I listen, I will learn.
I will ride the wind of
your breath now filling me,
letting it carry me away from
my middle anchor to the
edges where I’ll grow and glimpse
the purpose you have
for ever-evolving me.
Amen.
Genesis 2:7 * 2 Corinthians 5:17 * Philippians 1:6
“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation…
see, everything has become new!”
- 2 Corinthians 5:17
Something that nourished me recently…
*We recently had our Wilmette Village Block Party and I helped out at the Wait Until 8th booth. It’s a cause I really believe in! Wait Until 8th is a national movement in which parents pledge to wait until the end of 8th grade to give their child a smart phone. There’s such power in community banding together. If you’d like to learn more, sign the pledge, and find others in your area who have as well, you can do so here.
*Speaking of fall, one of our family’s most favorite traditions is apple picking at Apple Holler. I have pics of our kids as babies in Ergos there. And I love everything apple. Normally we’re in sweatshirts and jeans, but this year was hot!
Ash and Starlight, plus other good things…
*SECOND EDITION OF ASH AND STARLIGHT ~ Find the updated edition of my book here at Chalice or at the Amazon link!
*MONDAY MANNA ARCHIVES ~ You can view previous Substack Monday Manna reflections as a paid subscriber here, or for the really old stuff, go to my website.
*WHAT DOES MANNA MEAN? ~ Check out an earlier post to learn how this little bit of “daily bread” got its name…
*POSTCARDS ~ A reminder that in gratitude and celebration of one year of Monday Manna on Substack, I want to mail one of my watercolor print postcards to people who’ve donated to support Monday Manna. Reply to this email with your mailing address. 💛
Om ritam namah, friends. When you feel off-balance this week, come back to this promise and truth. You carry that sacred pulse within you, and it will direct you with what you need. Here’s the inhale and exhale…
Love and Light,
Arianne
I love hearing from you! You are manna. Reply to this note to send a message directly to my inbox.
so beautiful, Arianne. I love especially how you add all these lovely bits to the bottom of your newsletter. Thanks for the inspiration 🙏
Beautiful words and watercolors. I am not sure how I have stumbled upon your post. As an educator, I applaud the wait for cell phones .
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