An Amazing New Year

This holiday season was quiet for me, and it was exactly what I needed it to be. I needed peace and quiet. I needed time to just be in the in between. We had no decorations, and our meals reflected our traditions as much as our cravings. It was a calm and peaceful Christmas and New Year’s Eve, then on New Year’s Day things began to move forward in a big way.

Christmas Eve, I made cheese enchiladas with red sauce, Mexican style rice, and refried beans. I grew up eating enchiladas for Christmas Eve. It was my mother’s tradition and reminded me of my childhood growing up in Phoenix, Arizona. The Mexican style rice was made just as my mother-in-law made it, pink with tomato and chicken bouillion and studded with carrots, peas, and corn. It was pure comfort food.

We ate and watched classic Christmas films on Turner Classic Movies. I drank hot cocoa with marshmallows. It was quiet and peaceful.

Christmas Day, I made spicy orange-ginger chicken, my husband’s favorite. (This recipe is so good. I’ll link it here for you.) It’s made with fresh squeezed orange juice, chicken pieces that are marinated and sauteed, not breaded. It has just the right amount of sriracha to heat it up. It’s garnished with green onions to bring a bright green sharp flavor which balances the entire dish. It’s fantastic and may be a new tradition.

I meditated daily, sometimes twice, and other than cooking, grocery shopping, and watching classic films, I did little else during the holidays. The plastic sparkly-ness of the holidays didn’t impress me this year. I noticed that the things that I used to love were no longer calling me, energy was shifting.

I needed stillness and more solitude that my naturally introverted self usually needs. I honored it all with the intention of loving myself and providing myself that space and time to simply be.

I’ve been through this space that I call the “in between”. At some point I realized that I was experiencing a dark night of the soul, but it didn’t feel that dark. It felt like I needed a time out from the world. I ignored social media. I shared no holiday messages. I thanked no one publicly. It was all in my heart and shared with Spirit. I put myself first and ensured that I gave only what I had to give and no more. The mantra in my head cheered quietly, “Me first! Me first!”. As a former chronic over-giver, this is a big shift.

New Year’s Eve was our 25th wedding anniversary. A milestone. It too was as understated as Christmas. We went to one of our favorite casual bar and restaurants, Chuey Fu’s. We enjoyed good drink, good food, and good company. And we were home before dark. It was like most other Saturdays, and it was what I needed, low key.

After falling asleep on the sofa a few times, I went to bed early. I was in hermit mode again. The brief outing was enough for me. The fireworks and countdown shows that I used to enjoy held no attraction for me. I remembered my cat being scared and hiding under the bed from the loud bangs and didn’t want to be a part of it. I wanted to sleep.

The things I used to love were falling away to make way for the new and I allowed it. This is what it’s like when we’ve made it to the other side of the in between, through the dark night of the soul, we begin to let go of what no longer serves and begin to make way for what does.

New Year’s Day, or that evening to be more specific, I noticed a shift. The day was unremarkable, we carefully and somewhat successfully navigated the ice and snow to go grocery shopping. The rest of the day was a normal, quiet Sunday. I did some indoor gardening and wrote for a while.

As day turned into night, the energy picked up a bit. I was sitting at my desk on social media when I saw an image of a cat that looked exactly like my cat Jack, a tuxedo, who passed away years ago. My energy softened and I greeting him in the way I used to and then I felt him.

In an instant, I was in mediumship with Jack.

He stood on my desk. I petted him in his favorite ways, and he moved in his usual ways. When he was satisfied, he stepped down from my desk onto my lap and curled up in his usual way. I instinctively put my arms around him and cradled him in my lap for a bit. I then petted his smooth, silky fur in a way that used to soothe him to sleep. I sensed his purr and his warmth in my lap. It was all so familiar as if we had never parted.

And then suddenly my body began to shake rhythmically with energy work. When it stopped, I expressed gratitude for the energy work as I caught my breath. Next, I received energy healing and performed co-healing on the hip that I pulled and tweaked on the ice on the way home from grocery store. I expressed gratitude for the blessing of healing.

But I had forgotten something. I tried to remember what I had just experienced. I knew it was something that I wanted to remember so I could write it in my journal. The energy work and healing had clouded my thoughts. I tried to place myself in the energy of the situation a short while before, but it wasn’t working. Then my third eye began to ache. I rubbed between my eyebrows to massage away the pain, and I was able to access that moment with Jack. The memory of the connection and mediumship returned.

Next, Spirit and I had a conversation about how to access information and memory. To summarize; time is irrelevant, connect with the energy of that moment with the intention of retrieving it from the chakra related to that energy. In this case it was psychic energy that I was trying to retrieve, mediumship with Jack, that meant I needed to access the third eye chakra.

Spirit praised me for the work telling me, “You’re so fucking smart.” And then my body shook with energy work again. When the energy quieted, and my body calmed, I journaled and integrated the amazing events of the night. Afterwards, I checked the astrology and found that this happened during a Mercury / Neptune aspect. It’s an aspect that favors spiritual communication.

All New Year’s Day I had been letting blog post topics roll around in my head. I wrote a draft of one and studied an outline that I wrote earlier in the week. They left me wanting something…different. Sunday night felt as if Spirit said “You want something to write about? We’ll give you something to write about!”, and they did.

I am truly grateful for these beautiful experiences. If this is how 2023 starts, I am looking forward to what the rest of the year will bring. Amazing.

I am truly grateful for everyone who reads my blog, views my videos, or interacts with my work or social media in any way. Your energy is felt. May your new year bring you safety, good health, and peace.

Yes, I know the message is a little late, but a hermit’s gotta hermit.

The image today was made in Canva.

Be well,

Nikki