Of course, I can't - very few of us can, owing to the pressure to keep producing and performing at so-called "peak" performance, which exacerbates how out of touch we wind up being with natural cycles.
That "out of touch-ness" is incredibly apparent during the winter (yes, those of you in the northern hemisphere: I'm well and truly south of the equator :) ) with people so rugged up their skin temperature probably exceeds anything they would feel on a hot summer day, giving them an excuse to complain more about the cold - and it is all because they are so out of touch they are conflating their emotional flat at grey, wintry days with supposed coldness.
As the adage admonishes: know thyself.
They would be better treating themselves to a few "mini-holidays", or treats such as listening to some favourite music, or even trying some of the treatment used for "SAD" (seasonally affective disorder, treated by sitting [with eye protection] - in front of a wall which has bright lights shining on it - incidentally, some of the temperature variables people should, in my opinion, know is whether they prefer back or front warmer/cooler, lower/upper warmer/cooler, and how all that varies depending on their immediate history of temperature - such as coming from heat/cold - and season of year).
Knowing oneself can make life in general more pleasant. As an example, at one stage I lived in a very cold house. Getting up in winter - even for me - was a challenge, so I had a series of 24 hour timers (I can't do this now, as the ones on the market are too noisy, but the cat wakes me up . . . often) set to turn on a heater about half an hour before I would get up, then a small light, at 20 minutes to go, and then a radio with 10 minutes to go. My body was slowly worked through the sort of prompts that tell us dawn is coming, and I found I had no problems waking and getting up.
The sequence of stimuli that would be best for others would, no doubt, differ.
All of this, of course, is something I can enjoy because I have a home. This is the time of year I am particularly aware that there are rough sleepers out there. I had a friend in the 80s who used to send her kids out to find other kids who might be rough sleeping in the neighbourhood and bring them to her house (one of them grew up to marry a friend of mine). I've not done that, but I bought food, handed out whatever help I could, offered to make phones calls, been in and donated to others in the Sleep Out, etc - and, above all else, I have lobbied politicians on this issue (and many others).
In fact, it was the response I got from one politician (sadly passed over, now) on this topic that was a key step in me joining a political party, and I was at a policy committee meeting tonight (and have another next week which may touch on this).
Decisions get made by those who turn up.
Looking back over my life, especially the lobbying - sorry, "community activism" - I was involved in during the 90s and 00s, that was certainly true.
It's true of politics, it's true of spirituality, and it's true of magic.
Turn up, and have a go.
I've known a few people who feel to intimidated to make that first step especially in magic - and I don't consider the issue is things like comparing oneself against an unreasonable standard (being those who have been doing something for years, and clearly are very good - which I certainly saw amongst those at tonight's meeting) as not knowing oneself properly - will you enjoy actually doing this next little bit, will you savour that morsel, or will you be like the macho driven characters in, say, sailing, who want a boat that is faster than all the other boats on the water, rather than a boat that will give them joy.
A catamaran is fast, but an old-style monohull dinghy can potentially be far more enjoyable - especially if you hanker after "the romance" of sailing - as the faster, more demanding, more expensive boat. (One of the best races I ever sailed was one where I came last - we;d had problem getting to the line on time, but we sailed well, and that was more pleasing than crossing the line first [which I had done in enough races to be able to make a comparison].)
It's about attitude, and knowing thyself. The mistakes are things like thinking one's miserableness in winter is due to temperature, or thinking that fastness or flashiness is what is giving pleasure; the better paths are turning up and having a go.
Don't focus on whether your meal is as good at the chef's in the next seat: focus on whether you will enjoy your next mouthful or not.
(And then lobby to get more people at the table :) )
I'm going to end this ramble - and it has been a ramble, for which I (sort of) apologise - with a couple of articles I found interesting:
- What Witches and Magicians Can Learn from Jewish People - https://www.patheos.com/blogs/starandsnake/2019/07/what-witches-and-magicians-can-learn-from-jewish-people/;
- The Image of the Mermaid - https://www.patheos.com/blogs/adamantinemuse/2019/07/image-of-the-mermaid/.
PS - bindrune, prepared on the basis of capturing people's attention, is below:
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Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2024 NO AI
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