Low-work December and Woo Corner
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Howdy, and happy December! Which officially means (in my house) LOW-WORK DECEMBER IS HERE! Huzzah! And honestly it is RIGHT on time. If you're new here (hi!! welcome!) Low-Work December is my solution to being a seasonal human animal living in a world that seems to expect the apple trees to be in season all year long. Well, they ain't, and neither are we. So each June and December, I take the month off of client fulfillment. It doesn't mean NO work, I still record podcasts, and create art. But I don't take any meetings, or give feedback, and I am intentionally irresponsible with my inbox for the entire month. It's wonderful. Does this mean I have to work extra hard the other 10 months to make sure I can do this financially for those two months? Yes. Is it worth it? Oh good sweet nectar, yes, yes yes. It is incredibly effective at giving me enough space (a weekend off does not a reset make for me) to just be a person and not a machine. And now that I know how well it works I don't shut up about it. Also if you're new here, I use this monthly broadcast to sum up all the corners of the Internet I whisper to, as well as to deliver Woo Corner. If you're just here for the functional woo, you'll find it at the bottom of this email. Otherwise, grab a warm drink of something. Sit down, stay awhile. Something tasty this way comes...I've been thinking about desire a lot. Like, for my whole life. I am utterly useless without it, both as an artist and a coach. I can't make something I don't want to make. I can't help someone who doesn't desire anything. I learned this when I was invited to give a talk to a room full of wealthy retired senior women. Part of my talk involved them writing down three desires, then I talked them through what to do next. I don't know if you know this, but most wealthy retired women are pretty content. I heard from more than one woman, "I enjoyed your talk but it's really not for me...I have everything I ever wanted. I don't have any unmet desires." And that, dear reader, is the moment I realized that I was in the wrong room. As a guide and a coach, I am not meant for contented people. I am for hungry people, ravenous people, and people with big breathless longing. Now THAT I can work with. That is juicy! But what if you don't know what you want? Plenty of us are disconnected from knowing what we desire, or even remembering what it felt like. In a world of vomitously trite "follow your bliss" platitudes, there's a serious lack of a bridge between that disconnect and landing on a big, pulsing, living, true desire. So I am making one. You don't have to sign up, you're already in the right place. I'm going to deliver it right here, for free, to this list. I've chosen to do this in the "land outside of time" which is the 5 days between Christmas and New Year's Eve, when no one knows what the hell to do with themselves anyway. As long as we're laying around not knowing what day it is, we might as well be spending a few moments of those days rummaging around in the caverns of our hearts to reclaim what we want in the first place. It will be fun, I promise. Side note- I so dislike the "follow your bliss" advice that I made a whole Instagram post bitching about it. On the Podlycast:November's aural offerings included:
On the Patreon:In a very uncharacteristic lapse, I didn't post on Patreon last month. I usually post every 2-3 weeks (although in October it was three times, I had a lot to say) but I didn't post in November. This happens when I'm in deep thinking mode. My patrons know this, and (I hope) they also know that a silence of any length from me precedes what I can only describe as...bacon day. If you don't know what Bacon Day is, you can read about it here (this is a free public post). and without further ado... December's Woo CornerBack in December of 2024, I pulled a tarot card for each month of the coming year, specifically for the readers of this list. I release them every month, with a fresh card pulled for clarity and context. This month's pull was- No torrential raving spectors this month- the Knight of Disks is arguably the most solidly grounded card in the deck. This mofo is pragmatic AF. He doesn't have big intellectual labyrinths, he has competence, perseverence, and puts one foot in front of the other in pursuit of getting the work done. Think of him as a farmer. He is clever in material matters, able to provide sustenance and stability. He is reliable, patient, and steadfast. He can also be a bit boring. Lacking the emotional depths of water, relating to others is not his strong point. At his worst, he can be so tunnel-visioned and self absorbed that he becomes resentful of people or ideas that aren't immediately recognizable to him. So perhaps one of his messages could be that if you find you are getting annoyed by everyone around you, the problem might be that you're too up your own butt at the moment. It happens. I think what we have here is an invitation to do the sometimes tedious but necessary steps in service of our safety and stability. Not every moment can be a life-altering cosmic twist, which is a good thing, because that sounds exhausting. I think it's common for people- especially very cool, interesting, unreasonably magical people like the folks that are reading this right now- to feel like they're doing something wrong if they don't feel the earth shuddering underneath them. As though they aren't alive enough unless the big cosmic smoke is swirling. But rest assured, whether you feel it or not, the cosmic smoke is always swirling. And sometimes we just need to clean out the refridgerator and restock the toilet paper. The cool sparkly inspiration will return, just do what you need to do so you have a safe, secure place to enjoy it. The clarifying card this month is:Well I'll be damn diddly. Speaking of low-work December...Crocodile's medicine is pretty much "stay home and chill out." This card is an in-ward journey, not an outward one. So while you're restocking toilet paper, wishing you were inspired by the cosmic smoke, remember you are doing exactly what you should be doing. Waiting. Recollecting your energy. The fields must be allowed to sit fallow from time to time. This fallow time is not a waste, it is a necessary precursor to fruitful summer. Be patient with yourselves. Summer is coming. For now, do what you need to do, and restore. On that note, I'll be retiring to the couch to eat triscuits and be a bed for Bern* now. Don't go back to sleep. xoRachel *Bern is my cat. She is grumpy and perfect. |