“The question about how to ‘understand’ her now clarifies itself, as the wrong question…perhaps interstand is what we do, to engage with the work, to mix with it an active engagement, rather than ‘figuring it out.’ Figure it in.”
–Judy Grahn in Open Mind
The editor of the anthology I quote from above, Diane Mariechild, adds: “To interstand, we must be in relationship with what is happening.” I’ve been thinking about daily practices and personal ceremonies and reflecting how important it is both to find ways to deepen our practices, but also 
showing up for ourselves and doing it anyway, even if it isn’t what you imagined or you don’t have enough time, or it doesn’t feel “big enough.”
The Creative Spirit Circle card for the week from Womanrunes was The Dancing Woman, rune of power. How are you dancing in your power? What are you “interstanding” lately? Do you feel like a powerful person? Do you know how it feels to stand in your power? Where might you need to more fully inhabit your power?
On a personal note, this rune feels like it is my rune of the year. While I numerologically actually have a different rune of the year, the Dancing Woman is my intentionally chosen rune of year and I’ve combined it with my rune of the year for a bindrune of power and healing. I feel like I spent the last part of 2016 dancing at the edge of burnout and this year I must make some serious changes in order to better tend my own flame.
Our card from the Goddess Oracle deck was Sulis, goddess of bodies of water. How might spending time by creek, river, lake, stream, or ocean help you recharge your soul? How might you use water during ritual for cleansing and healing? (such as a sacred bath!)
This card was perfect for me personally, since I write this from our rental house on the beach. Part of this trip for me was about creating some distance for me from the rest of our lives in order to figure out what I actually want to keep doing, what I want to change, what is rewarding and fulfilling and what just feels like a chore, how to build/fortify our business team, structure, boundaries, and processes, and so forth.
The ocean is working her magic and every day I feel a new clarity about one or more things that have been bothering me or floating at the edges of my awareness or dimming my enjoyment of my work. These clarifying experiences just pop up…I’m not spending a lot of time pondering or writing or planning or specifically trying to figure anything out, it is just that the “time out,” is allowing me time to “figure it in” and to “interstand.” In these walks on the beach, my intuition can speak and I can hear those whispers from my heart about what feels good, right, and true, and what feels depleting or unnecessarily difficult/unrewarding.
You might wish to try this body prayer, adapted from the book Wild Girls by Patricia Monaghan: 
1. Hands on your heart, take a couple of centering breaths.
2. Raise your open arms to the sky with face looking up.
3. Bring your hands back to your heart.
4. Touch the ground below you.
5. Standing up, put your hands back on your heart
6. Slowly, with left hand on heart and right arm outstretched, face looking to the right, begin to turn your body in a full circle.
7. Repeat with opposite hand.
Affirmation for the week: I make time to “figure it in” and I dance into my full power.
May you deepen, may you dance, and may you ride the waves.
And now, dear sisters and brothers, the rattle passes to you…what are you “interstanding”? Figuring in? How might you work with sacred water?