Personal Reflection

Thank you supporting my blog over the past 1 ½ years.  As I look back over the posts, I see how my blog has grown and changed, matured and become focused, and expanded as I've learned.  Though I look forward to the growth to come in 2013, this is a wonderful time for reflection, before the new year begins.  To help us with our reflection, I asked for some Runes to give us guidance.  The response was interesting.

First, I drew Tiwaz.  This is one of my favorite Runes, as I feel a strong affiliation to Týr, the Norse god of justice, the warrior god, and ancient god of the sky.  This Rune is the Rune of sacrifice and/or self-sacrifice.  We can frame our reflection through this lens, by posing the questions – What sacrifices did I make?  Why did I make them?  How did my sacrifice work out?  When asking the latter question, consider the answer on multiple levels and not just at face value.  How did your sacrifice help you grow?  How did it help another?  How did you feel after making the sacrifice?  What is the lesson from that sacrifice?  One last note on this, everything requires some kind of sacrifice, whether apparent or not.  If you would like some help thinking through this, please contact me.

Perthro was next, the Rune of friendly competition and social gatherings.  However, this Rune is so much more than that, because we must look at what transpires on such occasions.  Here is a chance to ask ourselves what we accomplished with regard to building friendships or simply establishing relationships – networking.  How have we surrounded ourselves with or approached people who can have a positive impact on our lives?  How have we tested or, more appropriately, supported the warrior within us?  It is important to remember that our fate is attached to others in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons.

The best part, but also the part that warrants the most caution is Thurisaz as our final Rune for reflection.  The Rune of giants and thorns relates to power, focused power.  As we reflect and think about all that has transpired in our recent past, we can build a picture to help us identify where we can most effectively focus our power, for this is the next logical step.  What is the point of reflection if we do not take what we’ve realized and pieced together and move forward to accomplish our goals and ambitions?

I like this approach, because we are not blindly setting or proclaiming “New Year’s resolutions”; nor are we charging ahead without focus or understanding.  By taking a little time today, on this last day of the year, to contemplate what we’ve sacrificed and how we have supported our inner warrior, we can focus our power and move forward to a productive and truly happy new year.

Please let me know how this works for you.  I enjoy and appreciate your feedback.  Enjoy 2013!

A Mix of Routine and Spontaneity

Lately, I've been feeling like my days are getting away from me and I'm not accomplishing the things that I want or need to do.  So, although I am still getting things done, it doesn't seem like it and it doesn't feel very rewarding.  I need to get back to schedules and "to do" lists, but I don't want to get tied down to a predictable and humdrum existence.  So, how can I find a balance, where I have enough routine to be productive, but not so much that my life loses all signs of spontaneity?

As I am in the process of making my own set of Runes on wooden staves, I decided that, this week, I would try a different approach to my draw.  In fact, I did a toss or a roll, instead of pulling them out of the bag.  With the staves, I can't draw them out of a bag, if for no other reason than they will be different sizes, so I might be inclined to avoid the skinny Isa, for example, and choose fat Dagaz.  Instead, I will give them all a toss and choose the three that are closest to the center of the pile and face up.  Using my current Runes for this week's question and following that course, I got Othala, Thurisaz, and Jera.

I must admit, Othala as the overview gave me pause.  I thought for a while about how this Rune represents the current situation and I realized that the Rune of inheritance and home represents something more basal than inheritance and home.  It signifies the foundation of tradition.  While our goal is to enjoy our home life, which is another attribute of this Rune, to do that, we must look to the past to see how enjoying the home was achieved before.  For me, this is very telling, because I find I am most effective when I have a somewhat set schedule and, more recently, a "to do" list.  The latter is especially handy these days, when my life isn't my own, rather I am coordinating my family of four.  What Othala says to me is, "Look back to when your life and home were in order.  Why was it so?"

Thurisaz, the Rune of giants and thorns, as the challenge is perfect.  I like this Rune, because it is about focusing power.  If we are honest with ourselves, that is the challenge we face through this question.  We all have the power to be productive; after all, everything is pure potential when it begins.  Therefore, we have the potential within us to focus our power or efforts on creating a more productive and satisfying daily life.  We can choose to create obstacles, tear them down or go around them.

It is no surprise then that Jera is our required action.  You all know this is my favorite Rune, the Rune of the harvest.  However, what we must recognize is that in order for the harvest to occur and be bountiful, we must follow a process.  If we think of the things we have to do in our lives as being different crops, we begin to see that each plant has its own requirements.  Some plants need more sun, while others need more water.  Some grow in soil that stunts other plants.  It is this detail of the process that we must address.  How much time does each aspect of our lives require?  Which things are necessary for survival and which are merely wants?  Don't get me wrong,  I'm not saying we should ignore wants or give no time to them.  What I am suggesting is that we make this distinction to help us prioritize.  Where our needs create our routine, our wants give way to spontaneity.

I'm Overwhelmed

Everyone feels overwhelmed at one point or another and it can happen for any number of reasons.  A single thing or lots of little things at once can overwhelm us.  What I ask the Runes this week is how to manage this feeling and get back on our feet.  Two of the Runes from last week made a follow up appearance today, joined by a Rune I don't draw very often.

Hagalaz sets the stage.  This makes perfect sense.  The Rune of hail and disruption is the perfect representation of being overwhelmed.  Hailstorms leave everything they hit looking beaten and ragged.  Similarly, we certainly feel like our lives have been disrupted when something overwhelms us.  The second part of the picture painted by Hagalaz is that, once we find our footing again, we feel better and more energized, nourished by our ability to repair the initial damage of the hail.  This second part is what's coming.

Our other Rune from last week offers this week's challenge - Algiz, the Rune of self-defense and protection.  Somewhere along the line, we stopped doing this, stopped looking out for ourselves.  Perhaps we have taken on too much, because we can't say 'no'.  Maybe something caught us completely off-guard and knocked us to our knees.  Any number of things could have put us in this situation, but the ultimate reason we are here is because we left ourselves open to whatever is overwhelming us right now.  We need to alter our situation so that we feel empowered and able to put ourselves back into a manageable situation.  But how?

Thurisaz, the Rune of giants or thorns is the required action.  New Age interpretations relate it to Thor and call it a gateway.  If this is so, we must think of Thor - fierce temper (easily lost, but just as easily regained), strongest of all the gods  - and ponder what it means to have such power as he possesses.  Contemplating this puts us at a gateway which requires thought before action, thought before stepping through said gateway.  Our traditional interpretation of this Rune is less clear, as the Rune poems don't agree on the meaning of this Rune and there is no mention of Thor in them.  Despite the different meanings in the poems, the bottom line agreement around Thurisaz is that it is a Rune of focused power, standing in contrast to our current situation.  Presently, the overwhelmed sensation we're experiencing makes us feel powerless.  What Thurisaz says is that it is time to take the reins and unleash the focused power that we possess, but have lost site of.  Doing this allows us to overcome the things that have created our sense of being overwhelmed.

I am ready to unleash the power if you are.  Shall we do it together?