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Seeing the Light on the Darkest Night
It’s the shortest day of the year — Winter Solstice — December 21st — darkness, quiet, and stillness, are the qualities of the energy that surrounds us. This is a time to become aware of and feel the dark, still aspects of your Self that come into focus at the beginning of Winter.
A Quiet Celebration
In preparation for the more outward-focused seasonal festivities of Christmas, Chanukah, and New Year, host a short, simple, and quiet celebration for your Self sometime between Winter Solstice and New Year’s Day.
… of the Darkness
Plan to spend 20, 30, or as many minutes as feel right to you, in a quiet, private place, where you can simply, and comfortably, sit or stand, with the lights turned down low, or perhaps in candlelight, and become aware of your breath.
… and the Light
Follow the rhythm of your breath ... in and out ... up and down ... until the day’s problems make their way into the background ... then ... with your eyes closed ... in your dim, quiet surroundings ... look at the subtle ‘milky-way-like’ Light dancing around your eyes: that Light you may remember from lying in bed at night as a child. That vaguely familiar Light ... which has never gone away ... just not recalled ... a Light ... that is a bit easier to see at this time of year ... if you take the time to look at it.
And ... as always ...
Wishing you health & well-being
Kitty and Michael
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Seasons Greetings – Be Here Now
Your Inner Child in Winter
Your Inner Child in Winter
As Winter Solstice arrives, so too do the celebrations of the “Returning Light” — Christmas and Chanukah: Christmas celebrating the ancient anniversary of the birth of “a Light unto the World,” and Chanukah, a “Festival of Lights” celebrating freedom, and the inspiration offered by a small lamp, with only enough oil to fuel it for one day, that burned steadily for eight.
During this darkest time of year, the dearth of light kindles a yearning for its comfort and clarity in the days ahead — a desire destined to be fulfilled as the days gradually lengthen, and the sun’s warmth steadily increases. But for now, Winter makes us wrap around ourselves metaphors to re-mind that, when the festivals are finished, the pulse of Life still beats strongly beneath the surface, preparing for the ‘birth’ of Spring.
“What did you do as a child that created timelessness, that made you forget time? Therein lays your myth to live by.”
This seasonal symbolism of ‘Birth” — Jesus in the Manger, a Reconsecrated Temple in Jerusalem, the New Year Baby — got me thinking about the contemporary myth of the “Inner Child,” and the practical possibilities it offers for day-to-day spiritual renewal in this new year — and those to come.
Recognizing Your Inner Child
It’s easy to see how much more ‘open’ people tend to be towards each other during the Winter Solstice Holiday season. It’s a time when it feels comfortable to sing out a “Happy Holidays!” “Merry Christmas!” “Happy New Year!” — and not even wait around for the recipient of your good cheer to respond with their own — “And a Happy-Merry Everything to You Too!” While sometime in January, after the Tree, Menorah, and other Ornaments have been removed, you may not feel so inspirited, and where an unrequited “Happy Holidays” was acceptable before New Year’s Day, an unacknowledged “How are you?” in the middle of January can set a slew of negative neurons in motion.
Why? Because the ‘holidays’ remind, almost require us to feel the Spirit (another way of saying “Inner Child"), and afterwards, each of us is pretty much on our own for the rest of the year.
The Problem and Solution
The problem is, to feel the joy and hope that are the hallmarks of the Winter Holidays, throughout the year, you have to be open to every season’s suggestiveness, and be ready, able, and willing to feel “good” (another way of saying “Inner Child") at any time. In other words: to take the risks associated with acting and living with the “Heart of a Child.”
Which raises a vital question: “How can I expose my vulnerable “Inner Child” once I get back into the ‘dog-eat-dog’ post-holiday hustle, where too many people would exploit that “child” if they got just a glimpse of it ‘across the negotiating table,’ or ‘chasing a seat on the subway’, or ... ‘fill in your fear.’
That’s a good question, and my old educational psychology professor said: “If you can ask an intelligent question, you’re more than halfway to the answer”; and the answer is: “You have to learn how to protect your “Inner Child.”
To be continued ...
Seasons Greetings – Be Here Now
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the season of ‘festive commerce’ is in full swing. And as the momentum of ritual revelry builds, it’s a perfect time to begin reflecting on the spirit of the season—and not just its sensations. This way, when the clock strikes ‘Solstice-Christmas-Chanukah-Kwanza’ I’ll be primed to receive the deeper meaning of the symbols and stories being broadcast about.
Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.
To do otherwise raises the risk of beginning another ‘New Year’ feeling tired and over-spent, rather than inspired and renewed.
Though, since we tend to not put much attention into getting centered and staying balanced throughout the rest of the year, the question arises: “What can I do now, so I can enjoy what’s become the hidden meaning of these holidays?”
Be Here Now
Thirty or so years ago, a book called ”Be Here Now came to me. That title — Be Here Now — blew open a door in my teenage mind leaving an opening that still channels the clarity and refreshment carried by that simple phrase ... Be Here Now. That door opened onto a path I’ve followed ever since; a poetic passage posted with signs left by wise people who have come and gone this way before ... and as Earth sinks into its Winter Solstice the signs I’m seeing say ... Be Here Now ...