"The flower is full of everything. There is the sunshine inside, there is the cloud inside. The earth, the minerals. Even our consciousness, is inside the flower. Time, space, everything. It looks like everything in the cosmos have come together, in order to help the flower to manifest as a wonder" - Thich Nhat Hahn

Since doing the floral challenge in September, I have been looking at flowers a little differently, in much more appreciation and wonder. For all their beauty, they are resilient too. I still remember how when the cherry blossoms started to bloom in Fukushima after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, there was such a sense of hope even after all of the devastion and fear from the nuclear power plants. Flowers have that kind of power. Even in all of their delicateness.

After working with flowers, in October and earlier this month, I started working a lot with digital charcoal and pencil and gravitated to creating a lot of moon themed artwork. It was only after the fact that I realised that there had been a full lunar eclipse here in Perth on 8th November! I've often found myself feeling strong pulls in a certain direction or feeling odd and out of sorts, and when I've gone to check in with the astrology at the time, there is often something going on with the planets and moon that I feel explains all of those feelings. And it's always a relief to know that it's not some kind of craziness, but planetary energies instead.

There is actually a lot of anecdotal evidence how the lunar phases affects us humans. It's already known how the moon affects the waves in the ocean, but even us humans, made up of 80% or so of water, are often affected in ways that we probably don't perceive.

Even in gardening, there are permaculture principles around how to improve yields when planting by the moon. As the moon has an influence on surface tension of liquids, this can affect how plants take up water from the soil through their roots. And how much water comes up can affect the wetness of the soil that is a precondition for new seeds to germinate. The benefits of moon planting is mostly to reduce or eliminate the need for additional fertilizers, which is great for organic edible crops. And from what I have read about moon planting, like a lot of ancient practices, it is having a bit of a modern-day resurgence. Maybe a lot more people are feeling the lunar energies these days!