Closing Ceremony: Celebrating and Releasing the Year that has Been

How are you spending the last few days of 2014?

The last few days of the year are precious. I’ve learnt to spend them in an introspective space because it is a time to review what has been, to release the old and make room for the new.

As usual, Leonie Dawson’s Create Your Shining Life 2015 workbook is my companion at this time. It’s the perfect resource with which to review how 2014 has unfolded for you. The first section of the workbook includes a 2014 Closing Ceremony that I love because it’s a great way of taking stock of the blessings or achievements you have to celebrate, as well as what you need to release as the year comes to close.

In reviewing my own journey, there are a few experiences and lessons that stand out to me.

The spiritual lessons that I’m heeding: The lesson that I’ve been learning over and over again is to Surrender. Trust…and Flow. These three things have cropped up in all kinds of ways in the experiences and situations have have entered my life during the course of the year. Both my writing life and my conception journey have required my to relinquish my notions of control and to surrender, trust and flow instead. This wasn’t always easy to do, but each time I gave in to the reality of my situation and allowed Divine Spirit, Goddess and my wild essence to steer my forward, magic happened and new insights were uncovered.

The lowest low that I’m releasing: I’ve come to terms with my lowest low, which is having a miscarriage. It’s the most painful thing I’ve been through in a long while. It’s taken several months to reach a place of acceptance and to get back to the natural balance and joy of my inner essence. Anyone who’s battled with infertility knows that it isn’t easy. I’ve tried to keep my mind focused positivity on the fact that I actually got pregnant, which is a good sign that the health efforts and spiritual work I’ve been doing is working on some level. I just need to stick at it for a little longer and remember to keep getting out of my own way. I always go off track with my healthy eating and exercise routine in December, but today I am easing back onto the right path and I feel in my heart that my little miracles are coming my way pretty soon. So a ceremony of sorts is definitely in order to let it all go and to invite the possibility of fertility and childbearing in 2015.

Achievements I’m celebrating: Of course, my year has not passed without cause for celebration either.The thing that I’m most proud of is that this year I gave myself permission to focus more fully on my writing life. Doing so has opened so many incredible doors, all of which have reinforced that writing is a major part of what I’m meant to be doing with my life. After years of coming up with ideas and shelving files of half written stories and pieces, I’ve finally completed and published my book – Wild Essence. I’m blown away by the positive feedback I’ve been getting for the book too. I can’t explain how having this life long dream come into being has shaken my world. And I know there is so much more to come. That aside, I’ve done more freelance writing, guest posts and magazine articles this year too. One of the things that I wrote in my work book at the start of the year was to “get published in more anthologies”. Would you believe that this is exactly what happened? I’ve been included in two anthologies – one is Wild+Precious, which was compiled by Wild Sister Magazine, the other is called Spiritual Awakenings and will be launched soon.

How has 2014 treated you? And what are you celebrating and releasing as the year comes to a close? workbook

Solstice Blessings

Happy Solstice to you all.

How are you honouring this transition of light and season?

Summer is in full swing here in the South, with its long sunlit hours, heatwaves and thunderstorms. There is something in the warm starry nights that wash waves of nostalgia over me. They trigger memories of a childhood filled with wonder. And I begin to crave the seaside so, for that is where I grew up. I suppose that the soul always craves the healing balms that it remembers.

This past week I’ve been fortunate to travel to the Cape with my husband and inlaws. So I’m grateful to spend this precious time and to have been able to get my fix of healing ocean, mountain and desert vibes. Rich in beauty and the vibrations of Spirit, these places stoke the fires of me wild essence so. My heart danced with joy when I walked the soft sandy shores and felt the waves rush over my feet. Right now I feel nourished, relaxed and in the mood to celebrate the fruits of 2014’s labour. And as the craziness and chaos of  family and festivities set in, I am reminded once more of the true importance of staying grounded in your heartspace, feeding your own soul and stoking your inner fires to remain nourished and whole during these times.

So I send blessings your way and hope that you will find ways to be nurtured, soothed and to lean into what your wild essence calls you to do to stoke those inner fires.

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Wild Essence Book is here!

There are so many feelings stirring within me right now. Excitement, joy, anxiety, gratitude…but mostly gratitude.

Why?  Because the day has arrived!

After months of sweat and toil, months of writing, editing and getting to the nitty-gritty of the publishing process, my book, Wild Essence, is now published and available for purchase.

I am so grateful to be able to share the contents of my heart with you through these pages. Wild Essence is a book about connecting with your true self, the wild and beautiful essence alive within you and releasing what keeps your wild heart domesticated. It’s a spiritual journey about liberating and re-wilding your soul to return to that natural sense of personal peace and freedom.

Since I find so much inspiration and healing from Mother Earth, the book also includes intricately woven threads of wild whispers, insights and analogies from Nature.

As I shared in a blog post a last week, Wild Essence my love letter to the women of the world – women like me – whose souls have been broken in to submission to remind them that they are essentially wild creatures of profound beauty who are meant to be and express all of who they are, not lurk in the shadows.

Wild Essence is available for purchase at Balboa Press, Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.

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Return to the peace and freedom of your inner wilderness!

With Love

Jodi Sky