Uncertainty
Welcome to 2026
Season: Winter
Element: Water
Moon: Full
Sense: Hearing (Ears)
External Work: Bedrooms
Internal Work: Fear (Imbalance) & Calmness (Balance)
Happy New Year!
Yesterday was the Full Wolf Super Moon in the feng shui element of water and the season of winter. I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on Substack for what to expect for this full moon and even for this new year and, although I have read some of these posts, I am entering this year with only the feeling of uncertainty. To many of us, last year felt very fractured — our personal lives seemed to be ok while the collective seemed to be in chaos. It was difficult to reconcile our internal steadiness with the external destruction we were seeing in the news. Personally, my home and work life plugged along with little disruption while I watched death, demolition, and dissolving in the lives and structures around me. This juxtaposition has made me think a lot about how to stay steady while feeling empathy for those going through hard times, being an ally for those being discriminated against, and standing up for the injustices happening in our world today. My thoughts continually bring me back to the concept of uncertainty.
This post is about uncertainty and how we can get comfortable with it. For much of my life I have lived with the belief that when there was a problem I needed to get to the resolution as fast as possible. I did not want to live in the space between problem and resolution. This is the space of uncertainty. This is where there are any number of outcomes — the space also of creativity, intuition, mystery, possibility, and most importantly faith. This space can be terribly uncomfortable for many of us because it is the unknown. When we cannot sit in the uncomfortableness of uncertainty, we rush into resolution sometimes making decisions that may not be the best for us. This can look like giving in or giving up, making concessions that we will resent later, taking action that makes the problem worse, or numbing so we don’t think about the problem any longer. I do not recommend any of these. Instead perhaps we can learn to feel comfortable with uncertainty and see the positives of this state of being.
Phil Stutz writes in the book True and False Magic, “The universe is chaotic in and of itself. There’s no way any human being could be privy to what will happen next. It’s not a bad thing that we’re not privy to the rules of the universe, because knowing what will happen will not solve our anxiety—it would actually be crippling.” As humans, we crave certainty but we must always remember that the universe is uncertain and to be in flow we need to accept this reality. Reaching for certainty in an uncertain world usually leads to greater anxiety within ourselves and division and intolerance with others. So how can we become comfortable with uncertainty? Here are a few things I am working on to settle into it:
Know My Values - this is my foundation in an uncertain world and I can keep coming back to these when uncertainty leads to fear. If you have not curated your values yet or if you need to revisit them again in 2026, please see the Rest Ritual below.
Trust My Intuition - this means taking action if I feel called or slowing down to think things through if I am unclear. Not-knowing is part of the adventure so I want to lean into uncertainty and trust that my intuition will allow the mystery to unfold with wonder and awe. This is where I believe we learn our best lessons and where meanings are made.
Be In Flow - don’t let uncertainty create stagnation. I want to continue to flow through a problem in a meandering way. As I said before, I don’t want to rush a resolution. I want to calibrate my energy for when I need to pause to catch my breath, slow to listen or think deeply, or energize when engaging in creative problem solving. I want to trust my intuition to “go” or “slow” no matter what other people are doing. The important thing is to be in flow and not to shut down if uncertainty is leading to overwhelm.
Have Faith - Phil Stutz also writes in True and False Magic, “The most important tool for contending with life is freely chosen faith. This faith is “chosen” for no other reason than your desire to have faith. To deal with reality, you must accept the fact that reality is unpredictable and that you must act anyway, using only faith that you’ve chosen to have.” Faith, in this context, is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Let’s move through 2026 with faith in ourselves and our intuition.
As always, water, the element of this winter season, is the perfect guide for uncertainty. Water constantly changes between the states of liquid, solid, and gas depending on the conditions of the world. It adapts to the environment around it and flows into different forms that best suits the current situation. However, it is always water — always the element of quiet strength. May we be like water and know that we are adaptable, emotional, and intuitive beings, standing strong in uncertainty.
Rest Reading
Check out all of the rest reading recommendations in Resources on my Substack page.
Rest Recipes
For 2026, I am planning to visit Green Wagon Farm’s store every Friday to pick up produce to use for my weekly meal planning. This way I eat seasonal, support a local farm, and stretch my culinary creativity. This week I am making Cabbage and Chicken Sausage Pasta:
1/2 package of pasta (I used whole wheat rotini)
1/2 head of cabbage
1 package chicken sausage (I used Heffron Farms’ Smoked Chicken Sausage)
1 shallot
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons butter (I used Mooville Creamery’s Butter)
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/2 bunch of parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Boil the pasta in salted water per the package’s directions. Wash and shred the cabbage into bite-sized pieces. Slice the sausage into coins. Dice the shallot. In a large sauté pan, heat the oil and add the sausage. Sauté until browned. Add the cabbage and shallot and cook until tender. Add the vinegar to deglaze the pan. Add the chili flakes and butter to the pan and combine to create the pasta sauce. Drain the pasta and add to the pan. Chop the parsley, add to the pan with the salt and pepper, and toss to combine. Finish with shredded Parmesan cheese.
Rest Ritual
As we start this new year, take some time to review or curate your values. You can learn more by listening to the Living Into Our Values episode of Brené Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast. There is also a free Living Into Our Values PDF which provides valuable prompts and questions to identify two personal values and guides you on how to integrate your values into behaviors. If you can’t be fussed to click on the link above, you can curate your values by answering these three questions:
Does this value define me?
Is this who I am at my best?
Is this a filter that I use to make hard decisions?
If you need more guidance, you can reflect on moments when you felt most fulfilled, proud, or happy, then identify the underlying principles or qualities that contributed to those experiences. You can also ask yourself questions about what’s truly important to you, what you spend your time on, and what kind of person you want to be in life, to pinpoint your core values. And if you need a list of values for reference, please click on the Living Into Our Values PDF link (see page 3).
By curating our values, we can create the foundation on which the uncertainty of 2026 can land. Values are not only the foundation for our lives, but they also provide powerful energy, just like the water element. Although water is the most yin of all the elements, it can move around any obstacle in its path without losing its essential nature. It is flowing, it is calm, but it is also has a quiet power. Remember, in time water can dissolve the hardest of mountains.
I created this word cloud for my 2026 Values using this free word cloud generator which I plan to display as my computer desktop through the water element season:
Please pass this Substack onto a friend or family member to broaden this amazing CRC community and to give the gift of rest to those who need it. As Tricia Hersey writes in her aptly named book, Rest is Resistance.
Dates of Substack Lives for Rest Curations and Qi Gong Practices are still in development. I am hoping to have them soon. Keep you posted.
If you would like to hold a Rest Curation in your local community, please email me at abby@cascadefengshui.com for the script and music information. Or email me if you would like to organize a private pop-up Rest Curation for friends, family, or colleagues.
And if you are interested in my feng shui and interior design services, please see my website at www.cascadefengshui.com and contact me at abby@cascadefengshui.com.