Solstice Blessings
I am enjoying a purposefully quiet moment during holiday planning and doing. I say purposeful because I was not taught how to honor the natural cycles of the year that called us inward. Growing up in California, winters were spent in the frenzy of holiday gatherings, lots of food, and, yes, Christmas bustle. While all lovely, it wasn’t until I was in my late 40’s that I participated in a Winter Solstice celebration that brought me a deep peace amidst the usual hustle and bustle. Now, I simply can’t imagine moving through this season without first acknowledging this potent point in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth as it lives in me.
Winter Solstice is an invitation to honor the balance point of the longest night and dark time to sit in the quiet sacred pause offered in this cycle of life, death, and rebirth before returning the light and all that is being reborn within us. Seen through the lens of sacred feminine wisdom of creation, we understand that what is birthed is nourished from the compost – that which has been released back into the arms of the Mother. Into the velvety black darkness of the Void, and of new beginnings…
Winter Solstice is an invitation to be quiet. It's a time to take stock of what has been, what is complete, and what may come next.
My life has forever been changed by bringing this awareness into my waking life. Taking time to reflect on accomplishments as well as what I might have considered a failure or loss has shifted my view of how I live my life. It’s far too easy to focus on what’s working or what feels good. Yet there is wisdom to be gained by being with the aspects of self and of life that no longer fit, that have been outgrown, or served their purpose.
In the stillness of this High Holy Day, I am reminded of the beauty of my shadow and the light as they both live within me. I am free of the masks that I might have chosen to wear to be seen a certain way or of goals that no longer resonate with my soul. I am free simply to be still and open to all that has been and is yet to come. Honoring the season in this way is an act of self-love that fills my cup to overflowing.
What can you honor in your life as both a blessing and a lesson in the quiet of Solstice?
How do we bring ourselves back to this stillness in the hustle of the day-to-day world we live in?
Perhaps start by:
Sitting in the stillness to come into connection with the wisdom that is living and breathing you alive.
Being fully empty to receive the downpours of truth – however they may appear.
Breathing love and compassion into the aspects of self that we've judged or hidden in hopes that no one will see what lies beneath the surface.
Risk being vulnerable from the well of love – a pure accepting love that sees beyond the masks that we don to shield ourselves and each other.
Instead, filling your cup - your holy vessel - with the elixir of love that brings all things together.
Feeling this love so intensely in your own heart.
Filling yourself with the magnitude of awe, wonder, and gratitude for the beauty of the world around you.
Sharing that gratitude in the simplest forms; a smile, a sincere thank you for acts of kindness, a helping hand simply because it’s needed in the moment.
Looking within for the nourishment that comes from sharing in this abundance rather than seeking elsewhere.
In the darkness, we connect to the deepest parts of self.
In the darkness, we remember the beauty of the light.
We remember that we are all of it.
We are the love no matter what the out-picturing appears to be…
We are love.
What are you called to deepen with on this Winter Solstice – in the stillness of the dark?
What blessings are you celebrating since Winter Solstice 2020?
What are you honestly recognizing as the lesson that life gifted you to grow more deeply into love?
For yourself and all of us?
This winter solstice, I offer my blessing and my prayer to you…
That you may remember to honor the dark as you honor the light – that you feel the wholeness of your light even while in the dark.
That in the release of what you’ve outgrown, you open up to embody the seed that is germinating in the dark…awaiting the light, the new season, and all the possibilities that may emerge in the fullness of love.
Blessings to you on this Winter Solstice.
