You are the Gift- December 2024
Gifts Recommendations, Candle-lighting, Upcoming Course, Book Recommendation, Writing Updates, & so much more!
We light this time of year brightly so as to guard against the dark. While I appreciate the glittering lights, I also honor and respect the dark. During this dark time, when I can step back from the bustle of the season, I make time to go within, am still, and contemplate what really matters. I hope you’ll join me.
As we’re on the run-up to the holidays, I’d like to offer some “giving” suggestions to you that cost little or no money and can be accomplished gently and quietly:
Offer to do chores for someone who may be challenged. Here are some tasks you could do that only cost your time:
Clean spaces your friend might not be able to reach – both high and low (top of the refrigerator or the rear of a lower cupboard).
Do heavy chores – scrub the kitchen floor, lift something your friend needs moved.
Run errands.
Do yard work, or share cuttings from your plants (a friend is still growing, and sharing, Thai basil and lettuce from her summer garden with me!)
Don’t ask your friend what you can do for him/her! Instead, try “I’d like to help you with some heavy cleaning. Can I come over Saturday morning?” Your friend is much more likely to accept your help.
Make a donation in your friend’s honor to a charity you know your friend supports. For example, you could support the recovery efforts as they continue in western North Carolina. So much will be needed for a long time. People are living in tents in the snow.
If you feel called to do so, please support environmental organizations in your area. Our non-human kin need so much assistance right now.
Give an experience instead of an object – a membership to a local museum, or a season tickets to theatre performances, for example. Your friend probably will remember this experience much longer than a tangible gift. And it would be great if you bought yourself the same gift so you could enjoy it together!
There is one object I do recommend as a gift, however: BOOKS! Buy books! Buy books directly from the author or from your local bookstores!
Whatever you choose to give to friends and family during the winter holidays, remember to give to yourself as well. Give yourself permission to:
Take time each day for yourself
Relax and nurture your body, mind, and spirit
Laugh and find humor
Feel sad and overwhelmed, so long as you don’t stay with those emotions for long
Be alone to recharge your emotional batteries
Say “no” when you don’t want to do something or engage with people
Ultimately, I’m suggesting that you don’t have to fall prey to the commercialism of the season. Remember this: You are the gift.
Candle-lighting on my Deb Bowen, Author Facebook Page
We’re lighting candles on Sunday evenings as we approach Winter Solstice. We began on Sunday, November 24, lighting one candle. On Sunday, December 1, we lighted two candles. On Sunday, December 8, light three. On Sunday, December 15, light four, and on Sunday, December 22 – Solstice – light five. Join us as we move toward the Solstice. It doesn’t matter what kind or color candle or how long you let them burn!
I’m so happy to connect with you and I’m grateful that you have taken a course with me and subscribe to this newsletter! If you missed my last newsletter, you can read it here.
Bear Witness and Be of Use- November 2024
Upcoming Course in the New Year
A note about my perspective on Tarot: Tarot is so much more than a divination method. Its history reaches back so far that we don’t know its origins. Tarot has been used to relay messages between royal courts, to hide legends and teachings in plain sight, and to offer us metaphors and archetypes for our personal life lessons and journeys. My deep respect for Tarot crosses many boundaries, but my deepest gratitude is the way in which world beliefs, mythologies, cultures, and history join together in the images and meanings of the keys to guide our paths today. I so hope you’ll begin your Tarot journey to yourself in this course.
Unlocking the Mysteries of Tarot, my introductory Tarot course that teaches you how to begin reading Tarot, begins Tuesday, January 7, 2025. Registration deadline is Friday, January 3 at 6 pm Eastern time. Enrollment is limited, and both the afternoon and evening sections will fill, so register soon! Click here for details: https://debbowen.com/product-category/new-category/
Deep Gratitude
A huge thank you to the many of you enrolled in my The Fool’s Calling: Your Personal Myths and Archetypes in Arcane Symbols course! I am overwhelmed by the kind responses I have received about the material and I am so glad you are enjoying the course. Some of you who missed the enrollment deadline have asked when I will reopen enrollment. I’m not sure. The last registered cohort will complete the 38-week course in August, so I’ll make a decision as that time approaches.
Book Recommendation
If you loved Braiding Sweetgrass, then you will cherish this small, deceptively simple, book that is packed full of juicy, run-down-your-chin words that encourage and strengthen you to connect with and protect, our precious Mother Earth, and all beings.
If you haven’t read Kimmerer’s other works, I invite you to do so. Now, more than ever, her gentle reminder that each of us has a role to play, no matter how seemingly insignificant, in protecting life on this planet.
New published work coming in January! I can’t wait to share it with you.
Click on the links below to read my most recent works in Salvation South:
“A Tale of Two Hauntings”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/a-tale-of-two-hauntings-essay-deb-bowen/
“Let No One Turn You Around”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/let-no-one-turn-you-around-joan-baez-essay-deb-bowen/
“Sunday Fatback”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/sunday-fatback-essay-deb-bowen/
“The Coyote’s Journey”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/the-coyotes-journey-nature-essay-deb-bowen/
“Takin’ Up a Poundin’”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/takin-up-a-poundin-christmas-story-deb-bowen/
“Tidal Wave Terror”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/ground-truth-from-the-climate-reckoning-janisse-ray/
“Where I’m From: Seven Decades in Seven Scenes”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/where-im-from-seven-decades-in-seven-scenes-deb-bowen-poem/
“Mending Nets”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/mending-nets-north-carolina-barrier-island/?mc_cid=c4bb217ffc&mc_eid=fae2a9a622
“A Talisman for Poseidon”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/a-talisman-from-poseidon-hurricane-donna-1960/
Podcast
Deb’s Facebook Pages
Another way you and I can connect is through my Facebook pages. I’d be honored if you’d follow my pages. They are a great way to see up-to-the-minute news! I so hope you’ll LIKE and FOLLOW and feel free to comment and share posts!
Deb Bowen, Author
PsychicTeachers
Please note: I will never send friend requests or offer services through Facebook comments on any of my Facebook pages. If you have any questions regarding our communications, please contact me through my email. deb.bowen.crone@gmail.com
Just One More Thing Before You Go
“…the Wheel of the Year spins and spins ever onward and that every being is connected to every other being on Mother Earth. Suddenly, the house is ablaze in light, and we celebrate the promise and hope and light of the days to come.” - Deb Bowen, from Takin’ Up a Poundin’
Thank you!
Thank you for all you so generously offer and happy healthy holidays to you!!!