This morning, I rolled out my yoga mat and took some deep breaths to stretch and wake up on my deck. As I ended my mindful movement practice, I noticed the sunlight just grazing my toes. I picked up my oracle deck, Spirit Allies, and shuffled a few times inviting my energy to move into the deck to mingle with the cards. I pulled three cards while asking what I needed to know.
The first card was 33: Peyote. This card reminds me to look beyond the material world and instead focus on the oneness of the universe. Staying grounded in my spirituality, this card reminds me that we are all connected. We are all one.
It’s taken a while but I now recognize my true purpose in this life is to build connections. Connection is what I searched for as a child with a speech impediment, as an overly sexualized teen who was continually let down by boys, and as a young adult searching for my own worth in others. I wanted to feel connected. And I couldn’t find that until I learned to connect with myself and with Spirit.
Now I know from experience that one of the best ways to find deep sincere connection is through vulnerable story-telling. Opening up and sharing our experiences and emotions helps us find others who can relate.
Number 10: Oshun was the second card. The West African Goddess of water, fertility, and love reminds me to love myself, stand tall, and be confident in my uniqueness. It calls me to recognize my gifts and be proud of what I can offer the world.
One of my best qualities is my knack for creating community. My natural instincts help create environments where people feel comfortable digging deep with insightful writing prompts. Since writing has been a passion of mine since a young age, due to that early speech impediment, I have had many years of practice and can share my insights on how writing helps to heal with others which helps them be more open to the practice.
The third and final card was 48: Wolf. This card reminds me that I am supported. The people around me, my wolf pack, have helped me recognize my strengths and surround me with support. They help me feel comfortable and content and empower me to create.
My life is full and fantastic because of the people in it. I am extremely grateful for my wolf pack - or better yet, my Cheetahs.
My Cheetahs is the affectionate name for the group of people who came together for my very first Learning Circle in January 2021. The Learning Circle is a book club with a self-study twist, where we use the author’s stories as a jumping-off point to dive deeper into our own heads and hearts. In that first Circle, I only knew one person out of the group, someone from work who I didn’t know well, and everyone else was a stranger to me. The life-changing connection we all made through that Circle has created deep friendships that continue to this day. This group of women became my inspiration and motivation for my book Fragile Thoughts: A Healing Memoir which was published in 2023. My Cheetahs are my wolf pack. And my wolf pack continues to grow.
So what do these 3 cards tell me?
I quickly realized that even though I am taking the summer off from the Learning Circles, I need to keep my connections strong. I am being called to host more gatherings to build more community. And I believe opening it up to my new Write to Heal community here on Substack is what my Spirit Allies are inviting me to do.
One of the guiding forces of my day-to-day life is my Word of the Year. Around the winter solstice, I take time to reflect on the previous year and determine what I want for the upcoming year. It takes almost three hours or so to work through all the prompts and find what I am seeking. My word for 2024 is Playfulness and I’ve written about it in this post: Playful Writing.
Since the summer solstice is coming up, that is a perfect mid-year point to reflect and re-assess. So instead of doing this on my own, I’m opening up that practice to everyone!
Join me for a Write to Heal Community Gathering in the Zoom Room on Tuesday, July 2 from 730pm-9pm EST!
We'‘ll pull an oracle card from my Spirit Allies deck, then reflect on the first half of this year. We’ll have quiet time to write with prompts I’ve created for us and time to share if you’re willing (never required). Because my word of the year is playfulness, I have a fun playful writing prompt for us at the end. Join me to find out! To get the Zoom link, just comment below, send me a message, or RSVP yes to this Facebook invite.
Journal Prompts:
In what groups or settings do you feel most connected to others? In what groups or settings do you instantly feel separated? How can you work to build more time with the first and less with the second? How can you be the one to help make others feels more connected?
Calling upon Oshun, who tells us to love ourselves and be confident in our unique nature, what are the special gifts that you bring to the world? How do you know? How do you share those gifts with others?
Have you ever utilized a Word of the Year practice? Why or why not? If you have, is your word focused on embodying a feeling, taking an action, or something else? How do you think choosing one word to guide your year can help you find what you are seeking?
What beautiful practices and prompts, Katie!
In response to your first prompt: I feel most connected among sober people; queer people; yogis; and people who have a Buddhist, Taoist, or similar spiritual practice. I feel instantly separated among people who are drinking alcohol and people who take a polemical, either/or stance on political and social issues (regardless of what side they're on, including if they consider themselves "progressive").