 Happy 2019! Hey there saplings! Welcome back to esoteric moment! I am so excited to usher in a new year and I wanted to share some of the things I'm doing to bring a little bit more magic into this time period with you. Many druids in those following a Catholic path will say that new year for the like wheel of the year starts at Salon, but for me that's never quite felt right. The dark part of the year is all about like cleaning out and connecting to ancestors and like making space and that feels very much a part of the old year, not the new year. So my new year in the wheel of the year is definitely at winter solstice, yule, and it ties in really well with energy of the mundane world around us as you're celebrating the calendar new year. So between the time period of winter solstice to new years, I like to make a lot of intentions, magic setting, and space for just a really great year ahead of me. One of the keys to my magical new years is making sure that I set some time for just me to be alone on yule. I definitely take the day off from work and I make sure that on that day I have at least a couple hours where I can sit in a quiet room with some tea and really make space for myself and not get wrapped up in the holiday extravaganza that is all around. One of the things I like to do is to kind of communicate and have a conversation with the spirit of yule as I like to call it. That darkness, that stillness that we're really honoring on yule in all the excitement of the return of the sun is something that is really important to me. I like to kind of close out the year by letting go of whatever wasn't working in the previous year in 2018 and talking about what's going to work for 2019. I sometimes have this conversation with the spirit of yule allowed and sometimes I write it down in a journal just depending on whatever works best for me that year. I also do a little bit of divination. It's pretty common for many folks to kind of look at the year coming up and I do this with drawing a tarot card for each month of the coming year and then I write that down in my planner so I can refer back to it as each month comes around. Once I kind of get a feel for what's coming up I dive into my core desired feelings. I'm not going to share all of them with you just yet but one of the things I'm really working on for 2019 is flow. It's so easy for me to get wrapped up in planning and prepping and trying to get ahead of things that I forget to enjoy the moment so 2019 is all about letting each moment flow into the next being okay with that, being okay with not having everything prepared and just letting the joy and delight happen without pushing it or trying to direct it so much. Core desired feelings are a really great way to tap into how you want to feel and so when you make goals or intentions it all comes back to that feeling rather than external objectives that like the community your family or what you think you should be putting on yourself. There are lots of ways that we can feel that dream life without necessarily pushing ourselves to the extreme rat race that we feel so often in our mundane and everyday life. I try to get all of this done at Yule if it doesn't happen I have until new years to kind of work on this and to do these elements that really helped me bring in the magic of this season. I also do a lot of work in my planner. I have a Midori Traveler's Notebook style it's like an A5 size. I'm sticking with the bullet journal style again for this year but it is heavily influenced by some of my other favorite planners like Daniela Port's planner and some other things I've seen online. The nice thing about keeping my planner with my journal and work notes is that everything is really condensed and I'm not carrying around a million things. I love the feel of it and it's definitely Midori is where it's at for me. I love that style and how adaptable it can be for me each year. The keys to a magical new year for me is really about making space for myself finding ways to like honor and respect this seed and germination time that we have before the new year comes in. I love the darkness and the quiet and the peacefulness and just like the love that we can really generate as a community and in our own lives at this time. Sometimes it is hard like I don't want to downplay the tensions and stress that holidays can bring on everyone and I really hope that you can find some moments to feel something other than stress and anxiety during this time period and give yourself the space to germinate all the great things you hope to bring into 2019 for yourself. Let me know in the comments below what your core desired feelings or intentions for 2019 are. I am very curious. This week's Sapling Shoutout goes out to Zayn Cooper on Instagram. I put a post about some of the myths and things that bring inspiration and owen to my practice and he wrote a really awesome comment talking about his family and the myths that inspire his practice. If you want to be a Sapling Shoutout definitely talk to me in the comments here on YouTube or over on Instagram. That is where I'm hanging out the most and I love talking and hanging out with you guys and learning from you. Hope you guys have a wonderful 2019. Thank you for watching and as always may you find peace in the sacred groves.