Full moon lunar eclipse: Our battle cry is here

I was reading about this weekend’s eclipse and, apparently, the last eclipse was in September. 

September. It was actually a beautiful month for me. Exciting! Adventurous! Fun!

Let’s see… I finished my certification as a Life Coach, it was my birthday month, my brother came to visit, and we filmed our House Hunters International episode. Big freaking stuff. Amazing freaking stuff. I looooved September this past year.

But, then…

Death, sickness, breakdowns, extreme stress, and very tough times came into my life. And they came from every possible direction. From work, I felt overwhelmed and super stressed and ineffective and needed to even take some sick days (which I never do) so I didn’t fall apart. From home, Lina struggled with her eating disorder a lot. And I couldn’t sleep well. Neither one of us felt good. Sadness filled our souls. From nature, the cold + darkness literally settled in around us. From friends, death drew near when a dear friend of ours lost her husband. From family Lina’s grandmother passed away and my dad found out he needed surgeries.

In the midst of it all, I hit a wall. I felt lost. I couldn’t focus. I didn’t have energy. I felt freaked out. But, I felt all of my feelings, survived it all from day to day, and tried my best to stay grounded in those things that keep me grounded – nature + meditation.

Needless to say, it has been a tough time since the last eclipse.

With the dawn of a new year, though, I felt a shift. I felt as if I could shake off the old + really embrace some new energies. I’ve been feeling a lightening of the tough load and a growing of something wonderfully new – what that is, I have absolutely no idea. I have also begun to understand just how deep I was in my own sadness + struggles last autumn, and just how much those times have made me a better person. I am just beginning to feel and understand this, so there are no real thoughts or major lessons completely formed just yet. But, I feel them forming. I acknowledge the inspiration.

Today, this weekend, there is a bunch of stuff happening up in the cosmos. And whether we understand it or not, what happens in nature, and in space, affects us. Our lives. Our emotions. Our spirit/soul, too, even.

Just think about how the pull of the moon affects the tides, the animal kingdom. I do believe that tapping into some old, ancient ways of living, of living close to + with nature and the universe helps us to create organic, holistic, meaningful lives.

So, when I read that the full moon lunar eclipse this weekend was an ending point to the last eclipse we had back in September, it just all made sense to me. I mean I could see the obvious bookends in my life.

What about you? How has your life been since last September? How have things changed for you? And, think about this as well… as a global society, much has happened. In one way or another, we have all been experiencing a crazy, weird, upheaval of the way things have been. And, honestly, it’s all been really hard to deal with. (not to mention the crazy election and the dawn of a new way of living – one of resistance, protest, and persistence).

You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about the word “persistence” over the past few days.

persistence. pəˈsɪst(ə)ns/ noun: the fact of continuing in an opinion or course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.

If you have followed any of the American news this week, then you may have heard that Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, was speaking in the Senate against President Trump’s nominee for Attorney General (the main lawyer for the US government + the people). Long story short, she was shut down in the middle of her debate as she read a letter from Dr. Martin Luther King’s wife, Loretta Scott King. The leader of the Senate, who led the opposition to her speaking, said this of her:

“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

This sound byte has now turned into a battle cry for women and all people seeking justice. It has been tweeted as a caption to photos of bad ass women throughout the ages. And I agree with all of the tweeters out there… it’s a great inspiration for women, or for any group, to never give up, but continue to fight for the equality + justice they are seeking.

Then, today, I thought about this word’s impact on our own individual lives. And I thought about this full moon eclipse.

What if persistence was our own personal battle cry for our lives? What if, no matter what happens, we just keep persisting. We just continue fighting. We just keep on believing and fighting and working our asses off to create + live the life we want to live. 

And, then I realized, as I wrote this post that this is what this February full moon illuminates for me. This is the bookend that I needed. Pondering the tough times of this past autumn, and knowing that tough times will return (perhaps even as early as tomorrow, who knows?), the lesson that I have learned is one of pure, bad ass persistence.

To keep believing. Keep grounding. Keep working. Keep pressing on. Keep moving forward. Keep trusting. Keep knowing. To never, ever give up on the things that I know, from in my soul, to be true. And to trust that I can accomplish whatever I decide to accomplish; that my destiny, my life, is my own for the making. That, somehow, even as I choose how I wish to live my life from day to day, everything unfolds exactly as it should. That whatever I face, I am exactly where I am supposed to be. And, that, as long as I persist, it will all make sense. Lessons will be learned + I will be transformed.

My dear amazing wife is a very obvious symbol of persistence in my everyday life. She just doesn’t give up. Oh, she’s tired of fighting her eating disorder. And some days she just would rather give in to old habits, I know. Because she is fighting all the damn time. But, she doesn’t give in. She doesn’t give up. She just persists. Yes, she is amazing.

Head over to our YouTube channel to listen to a bit of her bad ass persistence in her latest video.

So, tonight, as we look up a the full moon and into the night sky, let us howl and yell and beat our chests and embrace all that we are… let’s commit to never giving up. To never giving in. To keep on fighting for all that we want, for all that we deserve.

And, if we are lucky, one day someone will say of us:

“Nevertheless, she persisted.”

“Nevertheless, he persisted.”

Full moon lunar eclipse blessings, wild ones. Owwwwwww!

xoxo. liz.