I’ve been creating a wish list.
Not a list of things I want to buy or accomplish, but a thoughtful, slowly unfolding list of intentions for the life I am living and the life I feel called toward.
I’m currently in what astrologer Jan Spiller calls the Granddaddy Power Period, the annual window when the Sun travels through the 11th house of your birth chart. In her approach to astrology, this is a particularly powerful time for writing wishes and creating intentions.
My Granddaddy Power Period this year is September 29 through October 21.
Spiller’s practice allows for up to 40 wishes throughout this period, which lasts approximately three to five weeks, depending on your individual chart.
You don’t have to write them all at once.
You don’t have to know exactly what you want.
You simply begin listening.
That’s how I’m approaching mine.
Listening. Reflecting. Letting the list unfold.
For the past few years, I’ve returned to this practice annually, alongside writing intentions at the New Moon each month and making birthday wishes each year.
But this year feels different.
This year, my wishes seem less about what I want to get and more about how I want to live.
What I appreciate most about this practice is the invitation to stop and listen.
To consider the life I am actually living.
What is working?
What nourishes me?
What no longer fits?
Where am I being called to heal, grow, change, or release something I’ve carried long enough?
And what do I want to welcome now?
These questions feel especially meaningful this year.
Since losing my dog Sonic, I’ve been feeling the tenderness of loving deeply, the exhaustion of carrying too much, and the desire to live with more simplicity, connection, and joy.
Grief has a way of rearranging things.
It reminds us that our time here matters.
And lately I’ve been noticing how often I brace for what might happen. How easily I scatter my energy among things I care about. How quickly rest becomes something I believe I have to earn.
I’m also noticing that I want something different.
More room to breathe.
More trust.
Meaningful work with space around it.
And permission to enjoy the life that is here.
Here are a few of the wishes taking shape in my journal:
- I wish to begin my days slowly and intentionally, giving my body, mind, and spirit time to awaken before I give myself to the world.
- I wish to feel strong, healthy, energized, and at home in my body as I move through my sage years.
- I wish to gather my energy around what truly matters to me, to choose with intention, go deeper, and allow what I love to fully take root in my life.
- I wish to create simple, soulful offerings that bring meaningful connection, joyful work, and abundant income, and allow people to come toward them.
- I wish to release the habit of bracing for what might happen and learn to feel safe enough to live fully in the life that is happening now.
- I wish to fall in love with the life I am living.
That last one keeps drawing me back.
I wish to fall in love with the life I am living.
Not someday when everything is figured out.
Not when every project is finished.
Not when there is nothing left to worry about.
Now.
Even while some things are unfinished.
Even while I’m grieving.
Even as I make changes.
There is still beauty here.
There are moments of ease, people I love, ordinary pleasures, and possibilities I haven’t met yet.
I want to be present for them.
For me, writing wishes is a way of listening deeply, naming what matters, and beginning to make choices that honor it.
Because sometimes a wish begins becoming part of our lives through something very ordinary.
A slower morning.
One fewer commitment.
A walk before the world gets loud.
Closing the computer when I’ve done enough.
Choosing not to fill every open space.
You don’t have to follow astrology—or be in your own Power Period—to take a little time for this kind of reflection.
You can simply begin with one question:
What do I wish to make more room for in my life?
Let your answer be honest.
It can be practical, tender, uncertain, wild, or surprisingly simple.
And you don’t have to know all the answers today.
You can let them unfold.
A Sacred Pause for You
If you’d like a little companionship as you listen for your own answer, I created Sacred Pause as a gift.
It’s an invitation to step away from the noise for a little while, breathe, come back to yourself, and listen for what matters now.
Perhaps you don’t need to figure out your whole life.
Perhaps you simply need enough quiet to hear what is asking to come next.
A breath.
A little space.
An honest wish.
And perhaps a little more room for the life that is asking to be lived.
With love,
Barb
Reference: Jan Spiller, New Moon Astrology: The Secret of Astrological Timing to Revitalize Your Life (Bantam), and the Granddaddy Power Period information available on Jan Spiller’s website.