January's Wolf Moon
rises tonight
aaawhooooooooooooowrwrwr - aaawhooooooooooooowrwrwr!
If you point your face full to the sky tonight, you will witness the glorious first full moon of the new year, January’s Wolf Moon (full rising about 2:02am, Pacific Time/5:15am Eastern Time).
This makes today a perfect time to set intention for the coming months. We’re enveloped in the borderland between the old year and the new, the hustle and bustle of holiday season and the quiet of winter’s fullness. This is the time Beth Kempton calls “The Hush” and Katherine May talked about in Wintering.
Depending on the year you just had, you may be reeling right now. You may be worried to step into this next year. You may be taking to your bed and not wanting to venture out. It’s okay, especially in the deep of winter, to feel quiet, introspective, maybe even a bit trembly. The great Unknown lies ahead. No doubt it will smack us with a surprise or two, but we have the opportunity, now, to set perspective. To gird ourselves. And to relish the goodness we also have in our lives.
My distilled messages to myself for this year will hopefully guide my next 12 months, and beyond.
If you’d like to consider these with me, pull up a steaming cup of turmeric ginger tea with raw honey, light a candle, dim the lights, and come along:
Transformation is Beautiful.
Life serves us change on almost every platter. Sometimes it comes in heaping helpings, and other times it is a charcuterie snackboard of bite sized morsels. Regardless of how it’s served, it can be messy, difficult to chew, gristly, withering, and hard to swallow. Unfortunately, we have to get through the tough jerky to get to the cake.
Metaphors aside, life is hard. And life is beautiful. Every day is a gift. Going through hard things gives us the opportunity to transform and grow.
Transformation is inevitable. Living through it, learning from it, being grateful before and after it - these are where your power comes from. Let go of what no longer serves you and step into that empowerment, moving ahead in joy and strength.
Overcome any Obstacle.
So much easier said than done.
You (and I) have learned from all past trouble and transformation that you are powerful enough to withstand what life serves you. You are an overcomer. Face obstacles with fierce resolve, intention, and creativity. You can push through life’s demands, cry through the tragedies, and vaporize the hovering difficulties.
Seek help when necessary. Don’t let yourself keep your head buried in the sand. Rip the Band-Aid off and take a good look at what lies beneath. Only then will you heal it, rise above, and clear the way for the smooth open road ahead. Sometimes it takes patience. Not every obstacle will clear and move immediately. Some will take great effort, time, and the sheer will to continue. Remembering your great inner strength will help you overcome them all.
Reclaim your power.
You may feel exhausted from transformation and fighting obstacles. You may feel weak. Life may have disassembled all you knew recently. How can you reclaim your power?
With courage, determination, and your voice.
If you’ve lost your voice because you let others control your narrative or you haven’t spoken up for yourself often enough or loud enough; if you’ve always chosen others over yourself, now is the time to speak. Say NO more often. Say your truth more often. Don’t remain quiet because your voice might cause disagreements. Don’t change course for someone else’s demands. Don’t always be the one compromising. Don’t be someone else’s prey.
The courage and determination within you will help you learn to use your voice again. The bravery waiting to show itself will lead you away from situations that aren’t healthy, aren’t working, aren’t leading you to joy.
Step into what you’ve been dreaming.
Walk in calm assurance.
Feel that roaring spirit awaken within you, allow it to lift you up, expand you as you’ve never allowed yourself to expand, and know that you’ve reclaimed your power.
Clear out the clutter.
This can be literal or metaphorical. Physical or mental.
This quiet winter lull can be a perfect time to take stock of what works for you and what is hindering your progress.
If it’s mental/emotional, seek a good therapist who can help you break through those obstacles and clear out the clutter. Emotional clutter can be pain, trauma, a tendency toward avoidance, ignoring a situation (so you aren’t’ really seeing what’s true and staring you in the face). I mentioned above that you will sometimes need to seek help during transformation, to clear obstacles, and even to reclaim your power. It’s okay to ask for help.
Journaling can be a good way to work through challenges, clear mental clutter, and practice finding your voice in a safe environment. I’ll be offering many journaling prompts in 2026, so stick with me for the Journal Journeys opportunities.
If the clutter is physical, you may need to seek the help of a cleaning/organizing professional. You may need to take a look at the dubbii app or similar software that can help you focus, make decluttering decisions, and hold you to follow-through.
Life is noisy and messy, but when we (SO GUILTY HERE!) allow our home environments, whether they be tent, car, tiny house, mobile home, RV, apartment, house, or mansion, to become overfeathered (too full of things), it makes it exponentially harder to clear emotional and mental clutter, to tackle challenges, to clear obstacles, and to emerge in beauty after difficult transformation.
Prioritize. Keep what you need (physically and emotionally) - and chuck the rest. It is hard to be secure in knowing that the universe will provide what you need when you need it. We need far less than we think we do. If you’ve tripped over it three times lately, but haven’t actually used it in more than 6 months, chances are you don’t need it. If the library stocks it, you don’t need it.
If your friend or family member has it for you to borrow on occasion, you don’t need it (don’t come at me about making yourself a borrower - leaning on others IS OKAY, we need to bring that back). I’m not saying to get rid of necessities so that you have to make yourself a nuisance borrowing everything all the time, but if you have no real need of a ladder 327 days of the year, it’s okay to ask now and again to borrow the ladder. Keep your footstool for the everyday stuff. Borrow the big ladder when you need one.
Reclaim your space. Lighten your load. Let go of what’s weighing you down.
Transformation can hurt. Hold fast through the dark and know the light will come again. If you can stick to the 4 tenets above for the year, you can indeed emerge a beautiful butterfly, full of colorful joy and buoyancy.
Tonight, on this rising of the first full moon of the year, we have a perfect opportunity to turn our faces to the sky and howl our intentions to the wind. We can find our voices and feel that power rising within. Be well, and emerge in glory, dear friends.
PROMPT:
Write the 4 intentions in your journal.
Transformation is beautiful
Overcome any obstacle
Reclaim your power
Clear the clutter
What do these mean to you, and how can you use them in your life this year?
For paid subscribers, I’ve prepared a January calendar with an outline of events and activities. This month, I’m offering it to all readers. (Below)
To my paid, premium subscribers, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!
To my free subscribers, Thank You for letting me into your inbox and for sharing me with your friends and family.
To my followers, Thank You for reading and sharing my publication.
I appreciate you all!
To take part in the Book Group discussion of Tales of a Female Nomad, follow this link to my Facebook Writer’s Road Fearless Writing Group and find the Zoom link. See you on January 9 when we will discuss chapters 3-6. See you then!