Insights for March 2026
QUOTES FOR JAN 2026
AWAKENING
Instructions before visiting Earth
By James McCrae
In the event that you wake up
and find your soul separated from source
and manifest into material form, don’t panic.
Your condition is only temporary.
You have been selected for the opportunity
of human incarnation.
This 3D simulation is designed
to break up the monotony of eternity
by giving you a fully immersive experience
as a distinct ego identity.
Your body will serve
as your physical avatar
as you navigate a dense and dramatic reality.
There will be many distractions
causing you to forget your true nature and origin.
You will experience a range of emotions
from joy to loneliness to despair.
But remember – no matter
what trials and traumas you encounter,
your soul remains perfectly safe.
At times you may feel lost or afraid.
This is totally normal.
If you ever need guidance,
simply slow down your busy mind
and bring your awareness
to the quiet place
inside yourself.
On this planet, nothing is permanent.
People and things will come and go.
You will fall in love and form sentimental attachments
only to lose everything you hold dear.
So cling to nothing too tightly, even yourself,
and when it’s time to let go, let go with grace,
for nothing is owned, only borrowed.
As you walk among
the people on the planet,
try to be a good guest.
Tread lightly. Remember
that you are only visiting.
Don’t make a mess.
Listen more than you speak.
Give more than you take.
Don’t keep your soft heart
locked inside a glass cage,
protected from wear and tear.
You’ll never make it out alive
and time passes quickly.
So come back with some battle scars
and good stories to tell.
James McCrae
AWAKENING
“Reminder: First, sovereignty with your soul and your soul agreements. Then, review alignments and agreements with others.” Margaret Gervais
“If suffering is the magnitude of our resistance to reality, and if change is the fundamental constant of reality, then our resistance to change is our self-directed instrument of suffering.” Maria Popova, The Marginalian
“Why are you so afraid of yourself... of changing things? Try to detach yourself from yourself and try to see your own viewpoint from the outside, objectively. You are afraid of losing your balance. But change need not unbalance you; life's not a static object, after all. It's a process. There's no holding still. Intellectually you know that, but emotionally you refuse it. Nothing remains the same from one moment to the next, you can't step into the same river twice. Life — evolution - the whole universe of space/time, matter/energy - existence itself — is essentially change... When things don't change any longer, that's the end result of entropy, the heat-death of the universe. The more things go on moving, interrelating, conflicting, changing, the less balance there is — and the more life.” Ursula k Le Guin
“One day at a time
One hour at a time
One minute at a time
One moment of awareness
at a time.”
Margaret Gervais
“Is this bringing me closer to myself or further away?” Cory Allen
“These times take time for processing. Give yourself the time and space you need to process and align with the shifts of what is true for you.” Margaret Gervais
"What a wonderful shock, an absolutely wonderful shock, when we really wake up to our true nature and we realize that not only does the world not need our conditioned self, but we don't even need our conditioned self." ~ Adyashanti
“Awareness: these are the things that are showing up for me - being aware of what is showing up.” Margaret Gervais
“Insight is ‘Is this true?’ ‘Is that true?’ ‘Is it true for me?’” Margaret Gervais
"Anybody can bump into the truth of their Being at any point by accident-better known as grace. Anybody can be spontaneously graced. But it's only those who really, really fall in love with the truth, fall in love with that which always is, who are the ones that actually stay awake." ~ Adyashanti
“You can be whole.” Margaret Gervais
“You cannot force your way out of the mist.” Margaret Gervais
In his new book, In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty, [Francis] Weller turns his attention to our collective grief, offering tools for navigating what he calls the Long Dark. Drawing from the alchemical tradition, he describes the Long Dark as a time of thresholds and transitions, where old structures are breaking down and new ones are beginning to be imagined and dreamt into being.
“It seems to me that the soul of the world, the anima mundi, is dropping us downward into the underworld, where we have to deal with loss and grief, with vulnerability, with uncertainty,” he told Tricycle. “At the same time, we’re being invited into a period of deepening and hopefully also of ripening as human beings and as a human species—ripening into our full accord with the wider cosmology of being here on this planet.”
For Weller, one of the essential skills for navigating this season of uncertainty is learning how to get quiet and listen deeply. “I think when we get quiet, we can be informed by something larger than us—larger than our stories, larger than our wounds, larger than our conditioned fictions,” he says. “Something fresh might actually come into our imaginal ground, and that’s what I find faith in right now.” TRICYCLE: THE BUDDHIST REVIEW
JAN 21
“There is a higher wisdom beyond the conscious ego mind. When we slow down and listen, we are guided. “James McCrae
“Reality can be heartbreaking. What is your response?” Margaret Gervais
1. Don't Wait
2. Welcome Everything, Push Away Nothing
3. Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience
4. Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things
5. Cultivate Don't Know Mind
Frank Ostaseski
“Awareness fuels authenticity and awakening.” Margaret Gervais
“Transformation follows awakening.” Margaret Gervais
“Truth is not only a realization of true nature, which is the beginning of awakening, the beginning of enlightenment, of realizing truth, but it becomes an orientation of life after awakening.” ~ Adyashanti
“To transform is a deep internal shift in our beliefs, values and thinking.” Margaret Gervais
“When we evolve, our unconscious shifts before action kicks in.” Margaret Gervais
“Aspiration is a verb. It’s not something that we have; it’s something that we do. To aspire is to connect with the energy of our life, to the spirit inside that moves us.” Oren Jay Sofer, “Nurturing the Energy for Change
“The more you let go, the more you know.” Margaret Gervais
“Learning helps to let go.” Margaret Gervais
“Be open and you will
see and learn.
Learn and you will know.
Knowing is gaining insights and
insight guides to wisdom.
With more insight, more wisdom.” Margaret Gervais
“Dream into reality.” Margaret Gervais
“Ease into reality” Margaret Gervais
“Between the scale of atoms and the scale of stars, between the time of mayflies and the time of mountains, we exist as proteins lit up with purpose, matter yearning for meaning on a planet capable of trees and tenderness, a world on which every living thing abides by the same dumb resilience through which we rose from the oceans to compose the Benedictus and to build the bomb.
All of our models and our maps all off our poems and our love songs, all the conjectures chalked on the blackboard of the mind in theorems and scriptures, spring from the same elemental restlessness to locate ourselves in the cosmos of being, to know reality and to know ourselves.” from Traversal, by Maria Popova
VIPASSANÃ MEDITATION and BUDDHISM
“Today (as in all days) we sit with change. We meditate with change. Our awareness of impermanence strengthens.” Margaret Gervais
“As Buddhists we have much to offer. We must contribute our clear insights, special contemplative tools, and compelling moral convictions in the task of transforming and uplifting our society and the world.” Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
“Be with impermanence. In mind, body, and spirit. Align.” Margaret Gervais
HEALING
"We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart... It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy:" Pema Chodron
GRIEF
“The cloud cannot become nothing. It is possible for a cloud to become rain or snow or hail. But it's not possible for a cloud to become nothing. That's why the view of annihilation is a wrong view. If you're a scientist and you think that after the disintegration of this body you are no longer there-you become nothing, you pass from being to nonbeing-then you are not a very good scientist, because your view goes against the evidence.
So birth and death are paired notions, like coming and going, permanence and
annihilation, self and other. The cloud appearing in the sky is a new manifestation. Before assuming the form of a cloud, the cloud was water vapor, produced from water in the ocean and the heat of sunlight. You can call it her previous life. So being a cloud is only a continuation. A cloud has not come from nothing. A cloud always comes from something.
So there is no birth; there is only a continuation.
That is the nature of everything: no-birth, no-death.” Thich Nhat Hanh, in "Fear".
ASTROLOGY
“After months of introspection, the Fire Horse asks you to take all that internal work and run with it. This is a year for: ✨ Bold action and forward momentum ✨ Following your passions without hesitation ✨ Expressing yourself authentically ✨ Taking risks and embracing change ✨ Moving toward freedom and independence.” Edythe Vickers, N.D., L.Ac.
Please see my prior post about the major planetary changes for 2026.
Engaged Buddhism
THE FOUR COMMONPLACE TRUTH
1. No situation is impossible to change
2. A communal vision, outstanding strategy, a sustained effort can bring forth positive change
3. Everyone can help make a difference.
4. No one is free of responsibility.
Sensei Kaz Tanahashi
War, bombs, murder, genocide, and injustice are deeply disturbing and infuriating to me. I don’t know why everyone is not deeply disturbed and infuriated.
I spend a lot of time processing and trying to understand what is happening because I am compelled to understand the darkness and the light of humans and of culture. Why are some people evolving toward the light of a shared humanity with compassion and care? Why are people drawn to cruelty and barbarism?
What does one do with the upheavals that reveal darkness? We are told to see the lightness that comes from darkness, but it is hard to see that right now. It is hard to stay balanced when seeking a shared humanity that has compassion and care. Perhaps maintaining balance is not the point.
I believe in engagement vs. silence, so I engage. I try to not hide from the truth. I keep learning. I speak up. I show up. I am willing to be uncomfortable. I am willing to risk losing friends and clients. It can be painful and hard. But not as hard as those who are targets of destruction, injustice, racism, sexism, and suffering.
I hope you are learning and finding ways to share what you believe. I hope you speak up. I hope you have comrades. I hope you are taking care of yourself and others around you, and I hope that others are taking caring of you.
Each of us is has a purpose and we all have potential for awareness and growth. Even in the midst of upheaval, intensity and injustice, we can stay on the journey of awakening. If we don’t continue the work of evolving humanity toward great awareness, justice, and compassion, who will!?
We ride the tides of the upheavals. We do our best to stay in awareness and find balance. We stay informed and take a stand. There has always been a dance light and dark. Now it is more lit up, which means it’s a time to wake up.