Make November a Month to Remember: Healing Pain Harvesting Pleasure

6:30 am this morning, I grabbed my coffee and sat on my balcony, my daily routine. Meditation after vivid dreams centered on the number 5 and a window view of a deciduous yellow birch, revealed this week's spiritual message about pain and its opposite, pleasure. Guided by nature and the divine, "Make November a month to remember" came to me with harvest-specific downloads. Personally related events inspire today's huddle, but the message is deeper and not limited to only me.

November is the last leg of harvest season. Root vegetables, late-maturing apples, storing for winter, and planning/preparing for the next season mark the gardener's wrap-up. It is also a time for reflection on yield, considering environmental factors such as precipitation, critter/insect invasion, and overall weather influences.

Hard work, no doubt, but the painstaking process brings rewards.

Alternative thought: pain before pleasure.

Harvest reflections and personal circumstances prompted this week's spiritual message. Let's go deeper.

On Tuesday, October 28, I had knee surgery after waiting for 8 months. To date, 2025 has been a physically painful one, and time has extended this pain to my emotions. Worry, depression, and frustration have been my uninvited companions, causing inadequate sleep and many days of mental unrest. Beyond emotions, financial hardship, juggling bills, late payments, and late fees have imposed an ache of a different type, making this year characterized by more lows than highs. Healing has often felt miles away and out of reach.

Despite it all, my spirit hasn't given up. Even during the lowest of lows, I kept saying to myself, "I am being tested."

My cover image is nothing grand, nothing extraordinary, nothing profound; just a simple deciduous tree.

Photographed from my office, a yellow birch caught my attention this morning. A common autumn tree, known for its yellow-bronze fall foliage, was the first outdoor sight I witnessed today, but not from outside, from my window.

A tapping on my pane occurrence that tapped into the inner pain I've been carrying set the pace for today's Monday Morning Huddle.

Although my dream carried much weight with the number 5, which has been repeating for me all year, the first order of business was the tree. So, I stepped outside onto my balcony, my favorite meditative setting.

Yellow birch spiritual symbolism:

• adaptability
• cleansing
• renewal

These 3 specific meanings are personally specific to my experience, but they are not all-inclusive to the yellow birch's spiritual significance. Other keywords include hope, feminine energy, new beginnings, and protection.

Known as "Lady of the woods," to the Celts, is an expression I find beautiful and inspiring.

Although I've seen my photographed tree every morning, today, the sighting felt different. Perhaps it was the way morning light hit the leaves. Maybe it was my side-eyed moment, drifting to the bird's nest. All I know is that my waking to window viewing moments felt healing.

A sigh, a little lightening of my emotional load, an unburdening that felt long overdue while at the same moment feeling right on time.

A nature-nurtured experience, a blessing from a deciduous tree.

Onto the balcony

Seated and centered, I picked up with my dream theme, the number 5. This number holds significant personal meaning. I wrote about it here in this story entered in the Maps of the Self Challenge.

5 is the number definitive of change, specifically of health and overall well-being. Life lessons learned through experience are the prompts calling for making positive choices and decisions.

Life hands us all challenges, and navigating is often a painful process. Whether it's physically related (illness, disease, or injury), financially focused (unemployment, monetary instability), or emotionally (mental anguish, interrelational issues, estrangement, and so on), none of us will skate by without hardship.

It's what we do with the lessons learned that makes the difference.

Move forward stubbornly, sticking to the ill-perceived, tried and true patterns of the past, or proceed with an altered mindset, one that requires a new and improved version of self.

Number 5 requires adaptability- the willingness to roll with change, cleansing- the cleansing of outdated methods, ideas, and concepts, and the actions, the positive steps taken to embrace renewal- the newer, evolved, enlightened version of self.

A specific spiritual message

Upon waking, one phrase from my dream kept repeating. Although I believe it is personal, I feel it is directed to the collective.

"It gets better after November 5th- moving forward after the 5th."

This may have special meaning for someone or a group of people. All I know is that the message came with urgency.

~~~

Closing out this week's Monday Morning Huddle, I hope my simple photo of a yellow birch brings peace to someone or offers a little inspiration amid challenging times. If pain is your present experience, I am sorry, but keep in mind that just like a wheel that keeps spinning, life, too, is a circle, always spinning, always turning. What feels too heavy today, too painful to bear, will one day heal, giving way to pleasure.

Yes, pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin, but a positive spiritual mindset doesn't need to be a coin toss. Look for the simple moments, ones found in nature, notice how outdoor scenery adapts and heals itself throughout seasonal changes. True, Summer will eventually give way to Winter. Squelching heat becomes freezing cold; both have positive and negative aspects (pain & pleasure), and challenging features within, but life is all about opposing forces. There will never be one without the other.

Sit with that for a moment, and tap into the vibrations of 5 energy.

What challenges are you currently facing?

Are you experiencing painful times?

Are you prepared to harvest your better version of self?

Find your sigh, locate your place on the ever-spinning wheel, and know that changes made will precipitate pleasure. It might not feel like it now, but stick with it.

Final thought: my side-eyed moment to the yellow birch's birdsnest says nesting is here; clean, organize, and prepare the birth of a new arrival- me! A newer version of myself, one who is about to take flight.

Happy Monday, everyone. Have a beautiful week, and make November your month to remember! 🥰