Sync

by Sonia Fernández LeBlanc

Originally published in New Earth Almanac on July 9, 2021.

I changed my relationship with Time during the great paradigm shift of 2020. I had a lot of it on my hands suddenly, as so many of us did, and I had the great privilege to have all my needs fully met as well. So nothing on my calendar for the foreseeable future and a big screened-in back porch with an excellent fan got me in an existentially contemplative space where I had some long, philosophical conversations in my journal with Time, my Higher Self, my Inner Child, and my grandpa (in the form of a cardinal who lives in my backyard).

What we came up with was finding a way to daily tap into that liberating feeling many of us had in the summertimes of our childhood. Back in that liminal space where Time didn’t exist other than through all the senses, not just those five we learn about in school. All of them! Fresh, dewy mornings spent in deep play until the sun was straight overhead bearing down hard and hot, which meant it was time to come inside for a sandwich and curl up on grandma’s bed with the window air unit cranked on high and a book to read that you got to choose for yourself! Then as the sun cast longer shadows along its path to the horizon line, the drowsy heat encouraged a bike ride to get ice cream down the road or to have a swim. We wound down the adventures when the lightning bugs started flashing in the yard. I didn’t pay attention to hours or months as a child.  How I knew school was about to start again soon was when the Crepe Myrtles were in full bloom everywhere. Summer in the calendrical sense was fast waning…

In this reverie, those memories came back to me so acutely that I could feel, even now more than 35 years later, the air slowly changed from fresh and breezy to humid and sticky the higher that sun climbed in the Nashville summers of my childhood. So what did Time, my Higher Self, my Inner Child, and grandpa, flitting about in the tree, solve in our journaling contemplations during the summer of 2020? We decided we need to Sync back up with nature’s Time. Moving forward in the shift to creating a New Earth that will support seven generations forward, we microcosmically acknowledge Time by Syncing up with the ebb and flow of nature’s cycles as a practice. More often than focusing on human made calendrical cycles that were at one point based loosely on the Sun, Moon, and Seasons, we have been drawn away from nature’s abundance and toward a scarcity mindset. I have spent the past year or so studying the possibilities of making this change more deeply and resetting my life around cycles rather than watches and calendars. As we have reopened our lives to be more connected with one another, I have reintegrated the human calendars, but now I am aware that I want more of nature’s Time—and bringing them into balance is literally the work of the new paradigm.

Some of you may be thinking, “Welcome to my world, Sonia, took you long enough!” and to you I tip my hat! Your Syncing is rippling out into the universe and connecting to so many of us who are finally realizing its life-giving necessities. But for those of you who, like me, appreciated the Moon, Sun, and Seasons but never thought to Sync themselves and elements of their lives to the ebb and flow of their cycles and influence, here are some possibilities.

Finding the balance of calendrical time management and Syncing with the phases of the Moon and their corresponding seasonal solar cycles is the key to integrating New Earth Time. Here are some examples in which to work with and reflect on what might feel right for you. Start small and if it feels correct, you can always expand infinitely into the macrocosms!

Sync Goals and the Solar Year

The Sun and the Seasons mirror the Moon phases through the course of a calendar year. Here is a way to set long range goals and intentions by the phases of the Moon mirrored in the Solar cycle!

Think of the Winter Solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year, as the New Moon phase. If we split the year up by solstices, after the Winter Solstice, the Waxing Season of the winter and spring are excellent planning and growing stages of the year.

The Spring Equinox mirrors the First Quarter Moon (balance of night and day) and is a beautiful check-in on any intentions of goals set in the darkest season where we dream of growth and blooming possibilities in order to continue the physical work of rooting and tending in spring.

Summer Solstice is the Full Moon which carries us into the Waning Season of summer where we begin harvesting and preparing. Those dreams we began creating in the cold, dark times either come to fruition and need to be cared for so that they may continue to grow even when the cold and dark are upon us again, or they wane like the season to come. We focus more on the harvest during this Time because it is so bountiful, and there will be Time later to contemplate that which did not survive. But first we bring the abundance so that it will support us when it comes Time to work through and understand that which did not survive.

By the Fall Equinox, which represents the Last Quarter Moon (balance of night and day), we are ready for another check-in. Now we can begin to take note of what is working and what might need to be reassessed and changed so that we can prepare for the quiet and stillness to come where new dreams—seedlings if you will—and extensions of ideas already rooted and flourishing, can be created, planted and offered continued nurturing.

Of course you could say it’s just like planning a year on all shared calendars, but there is something liminal and magical in connecting our human goals with the balance of the Sun and the Moon and the Seasons rather than depending on the Gregorian calendar of days, weeks, and months alone. I don’t know about you, but letting Time’s original natural calendar lead me rather than the man-made one has been one wonderful thing I have picked up in the paradigm shift of 2020, and it is serving my mental health very well.

Sync with your Birth Moon

I recently learned that there is significant monthly energy to tap into around the phase of the Moon under which you were born. For example, I was born on June 2, 1977, the night after a Full Moon under a newly Waning Gibbous Moon. I have been marking my energy monthly around the phases of the Moon for a few years now and I always find I need quiet and calm during a Full Moon. No dancing naked for me y’all… That sounds exhausting! But the day after a Full Moon I get a second wind and am ready for the naked dance, but everyone is always having a Full Moon hangover! I now mark off my real calendar and make sure I can rest on a Full Moon. Find out the phase of the Moon under which you were born, as well as some interesting information about yourself based on the Moon, here: https://www.moongiant.com/birthday-moon/.

There are so many ways to Sync with nature’s Time. Sit a spell with Time, your Higher Self, Inner Child, and a beloved ancestor who might present themselves as a woodland creature in your backyard, and see what connectives you can dream up for yourself!