Fun fact: Monday is the day of the moon, and is a great day to ask for spiritual guidance. This is not why I started doing these emails on Monday at all, but I like knowing that the Moon is always with us, helping us get the wisdom we need to plan and move through a new week.

Alright, now that we've gotten that out of the way, our card for the week is.....

The Dog Rose

These unassuming plants are currently blooming in my yard and the parks near my house. They look more or less like thorny brambles until their flowers open. Nowhere near as showy as garden roses - these plants are scrappy survivalists.

Last year my husband mowed all ours down to the dirt. He didn't know what they were (or maybe didn't care. Our yard was a mess when we moved in, and then it took him another month to get a lawn mower that worked.) This spring? They're all big and blooming again.

The Dog Rose card encourages us to find a balance between feminine and masculine, between soft beauty and thorny strength. A balance between slow growth and tenacious endurance.

It's a reminder that, yes, you contain multitudes. And all your parts and personalities get to come to the party this week.

This message is important right now because you've been second-guessing yourself.

You worry you've been too lazy, to indulgent, or maybe on the other hand, too pushy and direct.

You worry you need to be more balanced.

But this week the Dog Rose reminds us that balance doesn't mean being medium or average.

Balance doesn't mean standing firmly in the middle. It means being able to let yourself dance and move between the pull of opposing forces. Sometimes it means going to the far edges, and putting equal weight on each side.

This week

Your life might look like a roller coaster from the outside as you go hard for a time and then retreat into rest. Your challenge is to be O.K. with that. Remember, you wouldn't worry so much if other people think you're doing "enough" if you weren't being so hard on yourself inside your own head.

This might look like:

• Picking a different priority for each day or rotating between them (but only one per day) and screw everything else. You'll get to it when it's turn comes around.
• Working full-tilt when you're on the clock, and then locking your laptop and work phone away in a dark room until the next time you clock in.
• Spending a full day walking in the woods or at the beach to decompress from a drive into the city.

Journal Prompts

• What are the 2 (or more) forces in your life you feel pulled between right now?
• You *can* find balance in the middle, but also by having equal weight on both sides. What would having heavy weight on both ends look like for you?
• Balancing, like on a tightrope or on a unicycle, is a skill you learn and master by trying and failing and trying again. What might you try this week if you weren't afraid to fall?