Leave The Light On

Reclaiming power and forging ahead with intentional self confidence on this new moon in Leo

Dear Reader,

So long to Sol’s high season as we savor this final month of summer. The season of soft bodies in water, dog-eared book pages, fruit blushing before harvest comes, late and lazy dinners, time that stretches. Get ready. Here comes August, hot and slow.

Last evening we ventured over the mountain to our neighboring small town for part two of a summer block party series, gathering a mix of community around local makers, music and food in the quaint ‘hood of businesses hosting. Fellow artisans and creatives were on display — hand thrown pottery so beautifully minimal that one could easily imagine them presenting a myriad of things at an imaginary dinner party; small moon paintings and illustrated portraits of native flora; impressive wide vases of fragrant white ginger that one couldn’t help but linger by and waxy, pink tropical bouquets fit for a pageant queen; sheet cakes abstractly adorned in flower petals, gold leaf, and wavy patterns raked into divinely soft buttercream (two slices came home with us and were savored with morning coffee).

We met up with family and their gaggle of little ones, and together, across the table, swapped slices of sourdough pizza, plates of small tacos, and sampled the baked goods purchased on site. While the children scampered off within the safety of their small town community, making the most of their last days of summer break, we remained at the table talking birthday and personal new year, the pain of letting go and the power surge of energy reclamation. It’s in the air, I thought, or rather in the stars, currently, the call to realign and reclaim, to forge ahead boldly. It was being showcased in the curation of makers proudly set up with their creations, and in the hosts who set an intention and gathered the people. It was a connecting thread in our conversation. It’s been calling me too.

Today’s new moon in the astrological sign of Leo in combination with a certain infamous planet stationing retrograde (we’re looking at you, Mercury) offers us an opportunity to rewrite our mission statement. What do I value? What do I desire? What breakthrough am I asking for? And then it’s requiring us to believe in it, whole-heartedly. Retrieve the parts of you that you’ve lost to others — those who’ve stifled your dreams, who thumb down your truest expression, who hurdle your success. Intentional self assurance is the wand to wield.

This roaring energy feels contrast to the slow, sensual final weeks of summer. I am integrating the undeniable, wild-fire call towards change into the present by holding excitement and eagerness for bringing forth the new, while tempering any anxiety with patience for process. August is an invitation to daydream. It’s both go slow and make ready. It’s, plan the garden and plant the seeds for the harvest to come.

Since closing my tragically brief brick and mortar a year and a half ago due to an abusive landlord, I have revisited my dream of being a shop keeper. Self promotion and sales has always been my least favorite (albeit necessary) part of the job description and I struggle most with it knowing that the world has bigger things to pay attention to. I cannot find a way to justify convincing you to buy something from me when there is war and genocide and political and social destruction playing out at our fingertips. In honesty, my job as a shop owner has felt trivial. For several months I was reckoning with the reality of setting it all down. This couldn’t be the way. But if it isn’t, then what is?

Writing has been a consistent exercise in self reflection and flexes my creativity muscles just enough to keep the blood moving. It has kept me connected to the community I’ve built through Hina Luna over the past eight years, something I wasn’t ready to bid farewell to even if the shop side was dwindling. It is through my writing practice that I have reworked my mission statement as a creative —

This is an invitation to a softer and slower pace of life with the intention of experiencing more joy and simple pleasure. Through evolving creative expressions, I seek beauty in connected living through the lens of daily rituals, kitchen table culture, ancestral veneration and personal belonging. I want us, together, to craft life into a living altar.

An absolutely crucial part of this philosophy of experiencing more joy and pleasure is that it is not exclusive. These are things that I believe should be and can be accessible to everyone. All that they require are the safety to be witnessed. And so this is part of the work — in addition to the visual beauty and soft life living — to share with you how to access joy and pleasure and pockets of relief even in the hardest of times. And moreover, to stay aware of collective experiences, and to advocate for safety and peace of mind for all people because everyone has the right to experience joy with ease, often.

For many of us, this is reclamation work. And this new moon is calling us to it.

Part of my reclamation homework has been to retrieve the part of me that I left at the old shop, the part of me that is afraid to try again, that fears having my joy stolen, that doubts if I can succeed. I am being invited by this new moon to believe in my life’s work, to believe in my vocational calling, and to believe again in the part of it that includes creating a beautiful space to invite you into, curated with wonderful, purposeful things that can support your connected life and inspire a way of living that makes room for greater joy and simple pleasure.

In this slow end of summer, I am daydreaming about easing back into this calling with an in person pop-up shop for three months this fall and winter. Something brief and beautiful in a temporary space or even in a rented corner within just the right established business.

I dream of creating something warm and inviting, a home away from yours, a place to gather during gathering season (ideally with something warm in hand), somewhere to peruse a collection of carefully curated things to serve you in your life, or, just to wander and enjoy the good playlist. While for many years I gratefully operated a virtual version of this through an online shop, I desire again the face to face, the talk story, the safe haven, the deeper connection. The world is still burning but I know that my lane of positive contribution includes these offerings to you and I am working my way back to them.

And so, on this dark moon, the light is on.