How's it going in your neck of the woods?
How's it going with your neck? How was your last visit to the woods, or your bio-region-equivalent of the woods?
order
disorder
sequencing
design
These words have been rolling around with me through my mornings and early afternoons this week.
I'm curious how those words above – and the further words I'm about to share! – land within you.
I was writing to the Moment of Slow members about how to access the new podcast and read the notes. Moment of Slow – Be With Cassandra's year-long part-private podcast, part-private newsletter, all-nature and all-slow offering – just opened its digital doors on Monday. The digital container feels ripe with new beginnings.
I ended the paragraph in the Moment of Slow note with:
The sequencing is yours to design.
Without my knowing, those six words instantaneously attached themselves to me right then.
I have a lot I like to do first thing in the morning – yoga, walk with Ernest, make and eat oatmeal, do all my bathroom things, write my dreams down, write my day's list of 3s (kinda like a to do list but more aligned for me), prep Ernest's lunch – gosh, I'm probably missing something – oh yeah, get dressed! I'm still probably missing something else, too.
It's quite impossible to complete all of those things "first thing." When a morning meeting takes place, something unexpected happens, or I wake up later, even less of those things can be done "first thing."
After having written "The sequencing is yours to design" on Sunday, I woke up Monday morning with that sentence feeling like a banner gently waving over me in bed.
I found myself cozying up to play with the sequencing of all that needed to happen through the morning. The cozy sequence play stayed with me or, more likely, I stayed with it all through the day.
The next morning that banner was still waving.
A few days in a row, Ernest and I went out to the forest right after I ate oatmeal, still in my pre-shower cozy clothes. I found myself practicing yoga a few hours after that, rather than "first thing."
The yoga and oatmeal order is a big one for me, since many yoga teachers have imparting to me the importance of practicing on an empty stomach.
In this way, for me, order can easily give way to rigidity. But the internet and my body say that oatmeal takes two to three hours to digest. I'd say that's about the amount of time I gave to doing my other "first things" before arriving at the yoga mat. So, I can, in fact, practice post-digestion and not be rigid in my ways!
When I'm aiming for a certain order in my morning and I don't move through it as I believe I'm supposed to, my day and I can feel wildly disordered.
By giving myself the permission that the sequencing is mine to design, my day and I have felt much more flowy and spacious.
The sequencing is yours to design.
I wonder if you'd like a banner with these words gently waving over your bed when you wake?
Or does your banner give you permission to play in a different way?
We all have such similarities, yes, but our patterns can be quite different from one another – so perhaps your self-permission banner says something totally different!
1. how you can be with me
Moment of Slow's first open enrollment window is open and will be until January 31. If you're curious about joining, I invite you to read on.
The offer page starts with Moment of Slow's tagline:
it's like pausing by the nearby creek with your new friend Cassandra, every two weeks – via private podcast & email
Most all of the Moment of Slow "invitational conversations" (aka podcast episodes) are recorded while I am literally pausing by a creak nearby my home. If you want to feel like we're nearby one another having a small, invitational conversation together, then Moment of Slow might be for you.
Even if we're not new friends, I find that when I connect with an existing friend in a new way, it feels like I'm getting to know a different part of them, and they are getting to know a different part of me.
Moment of Slow has four open enrollment windows through the year for folks to join in timing that aligns with them. The price to join remains the same, as all who join receive access to all past podcast episodes and past emailed notes.
This is one of the many small experiments I'm offering myself and to people interested in joining. Does it work to have four open enrollment windows for a year-long offering? We'll see!
I actually wrote some questions that connect with the other small experiments I'm exploring through Moment of Slow. These questions can also be found on the offer page.
You can click this handy button if you're resonating with Moment of Slow and want to join now:
2. how we can be with each other
This section is back and still expansively experimental! I envision it as a spot for you to share offerings of yours so that fellow members can join in and support you. I also envision this as a spot for sharing current happenings that offer ways for each of us to be with ourselves. I'm not sure what that means yet but shall we find out together?
The best way to be included in this section is to reply to this emailed note or email me at cassandra@bewithcassandra.com with the current happening you'd like to invite fellow members to!
The current happening could be something that you are offering others or it could be something that someone else is offering that resonates with you.
What would you like to share into this experimental being with each other space?
Til next week, designer of your own sequencing,
Cassandra