The Wheel turns and once again we find ourselves having passed the spring equinox spoke, moving us into the lightest half of the year. As the wheel turns, each of the spokes has a different rasa: taste or essence. Spring at essence is potential, a time of new growth. We plan and begin the planting of this year’s garden. In our lives, this spoke in the wheel is an opportunity to check in with our lives as we re-emerge from the darkness: what has manifested in these past months?

And, what do we want to begin creating in the next few months?  Spring equinox can be a time of renewed or revised intention, or sankalpa. As a practice, we may time take to contemplate a particular sankalpa for the next period of the wheel’s turning.

Sit with these questions:
What do I want?
What is my heart’s desire?
What do I long to create in my life?
What is the greatest thing I could offer to myself and/or to others in these coming months?

Sitting with these questions, allow any “should” or “ought” to bubble up and pop, then go deeper into your heart’s true longing. Sit with that desire and allow it to crystallize into sankalpa. When you feel ready, write about what came up in your contemplation. Finally, try to encapsulate your intention in a word, phrase, or sentence that is easy to repeat to guide you as the wheel moves forward.

Is there something you can do today to begin manifesting your intention? What seeds can you start planning? What do you need to do to prepare the soil for the seed to take hold?

As we proceed toward manifestation of our intention, we of course must work with what is. Those of us who live in Colorado know that one hailstorm can decimate even the most cared-for garden. We are not in control. This is the flipside of sankalpa: what is the universe offering you?  This question also invites deep contemplation.

Sometimes what we think we want on the surface is not aligned with the deepest layers of being and we find ourselves pushing against forces that move us in a different direction than we intended.  So we must keep remembering, re-examining, and revising our intentions so they align us with our deepest sense of self. Inevitably, intentions that reflect our heart’s truest desire WILL manifest.