Today's eclipse is in the first degree of Gemini, and with my Gemini ascendant, it promises to be the beginning of a series of life changes in my future. Yet with Gemini ruling travel, communication and ideas, the changes don't look as earth-shaking as those in 2010/11. I love ideas and communcations and travel, so I am pretty open to the changes this eclipse/new moon bring: bring it on, baby! Shake it up!
One area I see changing in my life is in the realm of money. Due to tax problems and money issues, my ex has not been able to support our children as usual this spring, meaning I have taken over everything from the car bill to the costs of all the kids lessons (piano, theater, voice, french horn, drawing, organ), to paying for basics like food. I do hope at some point my ex will be able to start contributing child support, but until then, I am primary support for the bills. And though I had been the work-from-home mommy who helped with lesson costs for many years, the move to being the pay-the-water-bill and make the rent mommy has not been the scary switch I expected. Hardly.
Even when bills are tight, and they are, I find that feeding my kids, paying their teachers, and making the rent isn't just satisfying, it is downright joyful. I want to feed my kids - which I tell them when they worry about my co-parent's money problems. After all, feeding my kids, from a special Subway sandwich treat to buying good and healthy food, is central to giving life. I wanna buy healthy food and fix them healthy meals, and I find myself loving to pay for the (admittedly more and more expensive) groceries.
The same is true for their lessons. I have always helped with lesson costs, from back when I ran my own in-home daycare, until I opened my online store, and now today with my coaching business and etsy store and fledgling tarot business here. Paying good piano teachers or good art teachers is also a joy. I want artists and musicians to make decent, nay, good wages, and my paying is part of building an economy that supports real workers. Since I pay cash, it is fun, too, to watch my kids when I pay $500 to their piano teacher, for example. This is what I work for, and this is what they get: a kickbutt teacher and kickbutt music lessons. This is the economy I want for them, and they get to see it - in cash.
And as a new life coach, I am also intrigued now that I am selling, well, myself! During my years of certification training, I gave half off to friends and family for my life coaching - coaching with artists and with special needs issues. When I completed my coaching certificate, however, I moved to asking for full rates for my services. This is so different than my online store and online auctions, where I either put down a price or I put down a beginning bid, and then customers either buy or they don't! Selling myself, it seems, invites people to bargain with me. (Or I was conveying that, somehow!!) In the past two weeks, however, I have talked with three potential clients, none of whom batted an eye at my fees. I realized at some point that I am like the teachers I pay: people who care about my work will pay me with the same joy I feel when I pay teaching artists.
I hear more and more moms telling me that they are moving to this new economy - a giving economy that values women, teachers, coaches, healers, artists. We joyfully pay others for their services, and we expect a decent wage for our services. The minimum wage service economy of post-industrial capitalism is being transformed into a service economy of respecting professionals creating a world of value and support.
So what does all this have to do with Bridget? Well, everything! Bridget the poet, blacksmith and healer lived in a world where all were welcome to her home, where artists were valued, where healing was part of a commitment to God. After all, I don't believe in a God that wants day care workers, nurses, teachers, massage therapists, special ed. workers, carpenters, artists, musicians, ministers or any other kind of healer living in poverty! Nor does Bridget want that!
Today's solar eclipse brings new ideas, and one idea that is rallying me is the idea of this new economy we are building. I pay teachers with joy, and my clients pay me with joy. Service equals growth and wholeness for everyone. It is a new idea, and it is built on new forms of communication (from facebook to pinterest to meet up groups), and so it resonates with our gemini eclipse. Puja involves worship, but puja has always been part of an economy of growth as well. Puja involves money.
Today at the new moon/eclipse, instead of prayer or meditation, or perhaps in addition to, I invite everyone to offer some joyful money. Pay a tithe at church; donate online; add some coins to your shrines. Pay joyfully and help build a joyful economy, and that is yet another way to celebrate - and worship - Bridget.
Happy solar eclipse everybody!
image courtesy: http://gfx.tarot.com/images/feeds/300x300/solar-eclipse-2-300x300.jpg
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