New Moon Balloon Lanterns

In honor of Dwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, we made lanterns of wool...

carding it so the fibers lay evenly... 

then felting it around balloons with bits of wool yarn.

 When they were nice and dry,

we popped the balloons, trimmed the openings,

and set a tea candle inside...

May your warm inner light shine throughout the dark of winter!
Click for the link we followed...

Brother Energy in the Red Tent!

We welcomed in the New Moon and the New Year by setting up our red tent in the woods at Isabella Freedman....

 

where we sang songs, shared stories...

rolled with our brothers like a pile of puppies...

patted out the mother rhythm on each others backs...

walked around Lake Miriam...

and joined the greater community for tashlich/casting our regrets and shortcomings into the water...

so that we can start the New Year refreshed, inspired, burden-free,

and enLIGHTened!

The Mother-Daughter Project

After reading the book "The Mother-Daughter Project", some friends and I were inspired to let the new moon gatherings continue to be about feeling good as mothers and daughters! 

Jaime returned to her moon cycle for the first time since her third child's birth, so Jaime and I and her daughters sat in the red tent and made rag-pads for her from her son's old diapers - an ending and beginning. 

We've been singing songs and setting up the tent so that the girls can "pop" through with excitement, as well as sit in the rosy hued light and snack.  

We went out in the cold night after one of our gatherings and saw the little sliver of moon.  Ibby said "where, but I don't see it, where is the rest of the it!!!!" and we all nodded in wonder.  "That's the new moon!"

Swept Away

Inspired by last month's Dwali celebration...

  we decorated new brooms

 to help keep our homes and our heart(h)s clear.

It was so much fun that we brought out Debra's collection of broom handles 

 

and painted up several sets of lemme sticks too!

A DOORing in DiWALLi!

We celebrated the Hindu harvest festival of lights, Dwali, by cleaning our front entryway, sweeping the walkway and decorating the door ... all in order to welcome Lakshmi,  Lady Luck, Love, Light, and Prosperity into our home, our hearts, and our life.

Heads up!

Of this new moon, Rachel wrote: It is Rosh Hashana, literally head of the year, in the Jewish Lunar calendar. One of the Rosh Hashana traditions is Tashlich, a casting away of crumbs into moving water, along with sins or feelings that we'd need washed away to start the new year.

Here is a Tashlich story to get in the spirit of the gathering, and perhaps encourage you have your own impromptu tashlich gatherings as the weather turns. Besides being a story of the digital age, this little essay also has some mom ideas to ponder - like Magda's clarity that behavior that wouldn't qualify for "sin" in most relationships was sinful in her relationship with her mom, and like the author's remark that he turns to his mom for religious guidance because it is easier than looking in the Torah and she speaks his language! I wish for the forgiveness to flow between mothers and daughters, even if I don't always FEEL it. I envision us tossing our collective crumbs in the Hollenbeck at the Sadeh and whatever feelings arise, so be it! ...

Some of the "crumbs" we tossed were the need to have things our own way, and the need to follow tradition in the same way every time.

Swallow That!

The August new moon marks the beginning of the Jewish month of Elul. Its about the time our barn swallows begin their long flight back to South America. Twittering and calling, they line the telephone lines giving their youngsters last minute flight instructions. Quoting Rabbi David Ingber, it is spiritually, a time of change "both returning to who we really are and becoming who we are yet to be..." How like the swallows! We met and danced and played and ate in the red tent. Then we shared things we were sorry about and things we look forward to learning and doing better in the future.