Discernment – The Wisdom of Choice
When the calendar page turns to August, for some reason I feel that winter is gone, even though there is still a month left and, depending on the weather gods, some cold days are still ahead of us.
August feels like a turning point. Renewal is closer than it was in June and July, but we are not there yet. As Persephone prepares to leave the Underworld and rejoin her mother, Demeter - or Ceres, according to the Romans - we too might begin to feel ready for what is coming.
During the first two months of winter, we may have focused on releasing and refining. Now it might be time to turn our attention towards creating what is to come. From the Earth, Metal has risen, condensing the cold air into tiny droplets of Water that now awaken the soil with new sprouts. New ideas begin to emerge in the space left vacant by what has been released.
I enjoyed the vacuum left by the releasing process only to a certain extent. The human side of doing and creating remains strong, and stillness can feel somehow fleeting. I realised that stressing about not stressing seems to be a cosmic joke, so I decided to embrace it as it is. I applied acceptance, and that resonated tremendously with the Heart centre.
Heart energy becomes the new ingredient in this phase of discernment. It is not simply about thinking about what I should do, but feeling into what I want to do - what feels aligned with the hidden purpose of existence.
Any time I tune in with nature becomes a precious opportunity for discovery. Recently, I deliberately sat in a beautiful spot with no view of particular interest. It simply felt 'right'. I decided not to set an intention for myself while sitting there. I would just sit and observe.
As the minutes passed, I noticed more sounds: birds, branches drifting gently in the wind, a distant car passing by, an insect flying past, and then more birds singing. All of it came into existence without a purpose, if not life itself. Then another sound gently joined the melody. I could hear my own heart beating.
I was part of the system without realising it. And somehow, realising I was part of something bigger made me forget how small I had felt.
"Life has your back" is starting to feel beautifully true, even though I cannot fully understand it every day. The days continue with their highs and lows. Unexpected moments throw a spanner in the works, and what we thought was bliss can quickly become another storm we need to weather.
The power we thought we had can abruptly disappear, leaving us at the mercy of the waves. Perhaps we were mistaken in believing that was true power. Maybe the real empowering process lies in our ability to change the point from which we observe - and therefore the interpretation offered by an overstimulated mind or a sleeping heart.
These are the moments when the energy behind our next step may not come from a perfectly planned outcome, but from the softer contribution of the Heart. What would life do in this situation? Would it react and retract, or simply continue to flow through the chain of events?
When our decisions begin to include this quieter intelligence, we may not only move towards greater balance, but also gather small pearls of wisdom along the way. Like an oyster creating a beautiful pearl around the irritation of a grain of sand, perhaps we too can take the experiences that challenge us and allow the energy of the Heart to transform what they mean.
The wisdom of choice becomes a gentle reminder that life has our back. And, for now, that feels like a pretty good place to be.