Clearing the Path to the Heart: Intentions and Reflection for a New Year to come
Good afternoon friends,
As I prepare for tonight's Mellow Monday New Moon practice, I’ll try to stay brief 😊. And. I felt called to write, while respecting reserving and conserving. Above all as the year draws toward a calendar close, I invite you to let this time be one of reflection and heart-centered intention without force.
At the start of this year, my words of intention were kind focus, gratitude, and possibility. And though the calendar now signals the year's end and a new beginning I am reminded that we are forever in process. Taking this moment to acknowledge the year that’s passed and extending intention for what you wish to cultivate, how you wish to feel in the time ahead is a practice of immense value.
The steadfast energy of Capricorn calls us to root our aspirations and dreams into reality. In the midst of winter’s pause, we’re reminded to nourish our roots, preparing for spring—nature’s true beginning. Try not to place too much pressure on "knowing" the path forward. If the hell yeses in your heart are clear, move toward them with trust and resolve. But if they aren’t there—if instead, there are glimmers or subtle glimpses from the heart—know that these, too, can be followed. The journey often unfolds not in striking moments but in quiet whispers, gently calls, and in moments where things don’t quiet feel right to extend a redirect, to ask for your attention, to call you forward.
May we continue to clear the path to the heart, allowing its messages to rise clearly. From this place, our emotions and aspirations can channel through the inner light that is always present. Let us nourish our soil and discern which seeds are ready to be planted.
Consider: Are you trying too hard? Life invites us to discover the balance between effort and ease, responsibility and freedom, commitment and change. Allow this time to deepen and rediscover your motivation, molded by the lessons you’ve learned. Tap into the wisest, most loving part of yourself that always shows up to guide and protect what you cherish most.
With a calm, deepening breath, I’ll extend that you take in Mark Nepo’s words from The Book of Awakening:
“Imagine that what wakes in you has lived forever and that it wakes within a soft and resilient casing of tissue that will take you wherever you want; that you have these delicate surfaces through which to feel wind and see light and sense the spirit of everything else that has lived forever… Imagine you can open your eyes and dance in a world where water falls from the sky, that you can open your throat and song can come from it, that you can find the sun and let it warm the flower of you into being. Receive that it is all true—it is all here, and it is all now.”
It is all now. Gratitude for this body, this breath, this moment. For the possibilities that are always in wait to be noticed. The magic and the joy, the pains, the sorrows to be explored, to be seen. If you hone your kind focus, you might just witness it all. In homage to my teachers, I do not ask that you be more than you are, but to be all that you are.
Here with you in practice,
With love & light,
Maya
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