(nablopomo #11) 11.11.11 is magic and veterans (thank you)

pisces image, two fishes tail to tail and mouth to mouthGood morning — the puppy just woke up. We’re on a slightly shifted schedule this morning.

Here’s the nablopomo prompt for this morning: It’s 11/11/11. Make three wishes.

I don’t understand the magic around 11/11/11. I mean it’s a fun date, but it seems like there’s more going on for folks. I remember my college roommate, freshman year, lying on her back and waggling her hands and legs at 11:11am one day; she told me it was good luck. I’d never heard of that. The next time I was conscious of 11:11, I followed her lead, and felt ridiculous, but also a little bit hopeful.

I don’t have to understand to believe in magic and luck and possibility and synchronicity and wonder — I’m a Pisces, and that’s part of what we do. Believe.

Last night I pulled a tarot card from our Medicine Woman deck and got the totem of stones (snake). In the Medicine Woman deck, she’s replaced coins or pentacles with stones; in a traditional deck, this would be the knight of coins/pentacles. This card feels steadying right now, at this time when I’m both planning to grow writing ourselves whole into something bigger and more sustaining next year and making important changes in my creative life — being a novice Tarot person, I get from some of the interpretations I’ve read: encouragement to settle in to the (deep, underground) work, and recognize how every step I take is connected to a larger whole; digging in and trusting the work, even if it goes slow. And then there’s this, from the Medicine Woman book: Disintegration, death, and transformation are part of the cycle of life. The snake has always been the symbol of eternal energy and transformation, Healing comes by destruction and rebirth. The old skin is shed and a new one is ready. Life continues.

A new one is ready — not coming. ready. Here’s one wish for today: That I may continue to learn to hear and trust and attend to that inner voice of instinct, the one I had to ignore for years, the one that leads me in the right direction even when it’s painful, even when I don’t understand, even and especially scared that if I listen and attend, my dreams will come true.

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November 11 is also Veteran’s Day. This is one of my wishes: that all veterans of all wars receive love and abundant care every single day –all wars means those who have served in battle as a representative of a government, means those who fight in the war against women and children, means those who are survivors of the war against people of color and immigrants, means all survivors of violence, means those fighting in the war against the 99%. May all of these veterans receive the care and attention they need and deserve. May they all be remembered and honored.

There was a man shot last night in Oakland, near the occupyoakland encampment; he was the 101st homicide victim in Oakland this year. These are veterans of a war, too, so many of us don’t often remember.

The other part of this wish is that our government end all ongoing wars and not begin new ones — end the wars now and bring all soldiers home. If you care about veterans, you don’t wish to create more of them.

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I’m going to do some writer self-care today: after I post the blog, the puppy and I are headed out for a hill walk, we’ll have a little breakfast, and then I’m going to the cafe for at least an hour of notebook writing. It’s been some weeks since I had a long stretch of freewriting in the notebook — I want to be back in my body the way I can get when doing that work, and am longing to feel connected to my thoughts, to learn more about what’s going on inside.

Here’s a third wish, a selfish one: that there will always be spiral bound notebooks and rolling-ball pens. That there will always be exactly what you need, too, to do the writing you like the best.

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So you’ve got several prompt ideas for today:

– three wishes in honor of 11/11/11 — what would yours be, or your character’s?

– how do you or your character relate to veteran’s day?

– what is the skin ready to be shed in your life (or your character’s)?

– what does writer self-care look like for you?

Take just 10 minutes, more if you want. Write straight through, no stopping, no editing. Trust the words, your good words.

Thank you for your beliefs and skepticisms. Thank you for your ongoing practice in listening to and being able to hear the wise voice inside you. Thank you, each day, for your words.

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