7:47am Including today, three more days. As of today, I’ve decided to have a meal of curried vegetables with lamb to break my fast on Yom Kippur and then, starting Sunday, begin 10 more days eating kitchari. These 10 days are to give me time to live outside the safe haven of the 40 days and take a deep look at everything I’ve learned, time to be with what’s changed in me without overwhelming my system — and by that I mean my whole system.

A question that I need to answer for myself: How do I retain the simplicity that has entered my life as a result of how much attention I’ve had to put on the act of keeping myself fed? Formulating that question as I write this, at least at the level I’m able to look at the issue in this moment, helps. A lot. The fast has brought great simplicity to my life. My days have systems in place that support the primacy and sanctity of the fast. Shouldn’t it be possible to bring this intentionality into everyday life? What IS everyday life anyway? Maybe that’s the larger question. What do I mean by “everyday life?!” I think what it’s meant to me has been the stuff that’s forgettable, that’s unimportant, that’s boring, hard, or doesn’t make for a good story when you talk about it to your friends. Today, it doesn’t feel right to relegate any part of life to the category of forgettable. These days, I find everything, at the very least, interesting. Usually it’s more than that. What was once hard is now an adventure. What was once tedious is now an opportunity to practice a kind of discipline. I think a lot about The Karate Kid these days with Mr. Miyage saying “Wax on, wax off.” That’s a practice, one that builds patience, strength, skill and gets you a nice shiny car.

There’s a practice that I sometimes do called “Soul Collage” in which you allow the alchemical process of selecting images and putting them together in a collage on a 5×7 piece of cardboard to work it’s magic. As we move toward the Fall Equinox, I’m remembering that back at the Winter Solstice, I got together with my spirit sister Grace and did some Soul Collage. The card I ended up making I titled “Everyday Practice.” It speaks to me about the power of everyday practice — something I’d aspired to but never really achieved. An everyday altar practice, prayer practice, self-care practice. All these energies right there in this card that I’ve had in my field of vision on and off since then. I’ve had it out for the entire period of the fast. Part of the Soul Collage process is to have the person sitting opposite you hold the card so you can see it from a bit of a distance. And then you speak sentences that begin with the words: I am the one who….

I am the one who now has an Everyday Practice — a practice that acknowledges the Oneness of all things, where washing the celentro is as sacred an act as standing at my altar offering prayers of healing for all beings and for the planet. I am the one who lives an intentional life and for whom the path of consciousness is unfolding. I offer the fruits of my practice to the healing of the planet. Mitakuye Oyasin, All My Relations, Tikkun Olam