Winter Solstice is my day of celebration.
A celebration of this threshold in time.
It is one the most powerful times of the year as the earth pauses and shifts. In the surrounding days of the solstice we experience the power of this time of stillness and the shift of direction.
Where the light of the days slowly gets longer but we still reside in the embrace of winter.
Life is being drawn into the earth, without resistance, hunkering down, descending into the very heart of nature.
The breathing of the earth deepens and slows.
I am reminded that we too, in our mortal suits, are part of nature.
We are being called to follow suit.
To embrace the enriching aspects of winter’s darkness.
To pause, to sit in stillness in the darkness of this space.
To commune with nature.
To attune to it’s wisdom
To descend into the heart of ourselves.
Into our body.
Into rest.
Into stillness.
Notice the richness of the dark. How it invites us to cocoon ourselves and rest.
It is within the depths of the earth, this darkness and the depths of ourselves that transformation begins.
But first we need the quiet, the rest, the pause.
To dream and to feel.
I am also reminded that, as we all hunker down to commune with ourselves and nature, some will not arise from this deep rest.
They will rest eternally in the womb of the earth.
Offering up all that they have- their physical form, their breath, their soul to nourish all that live upon and within it.
Those who do not arise will birth new life.
With that in mind my wish for you is that you have the wherewithal to meet each moment, each cold winter breath, each other with love and care as life unfolds.
May you grow still enough to hear the subtle noises earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of winter, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within.
Listen and breathe
May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation.
Listen and breathe.
May you grow still enough to hear the soft beating of your heart, of the beautiful life within so that you find awe and worth at your very core.
Listen and breathe.
May you grow still enough to hear the soft beating of earth’s heart so that you may appreciate it’s very being for without it we are nothing.
Listen and breathe.
I want to take this moment to tell you how much I appreciate you all.
For being here, for reading my posts, for sharing moments of stillness with me, for sharing in this deep stuff of death, dying and grief – I thank you.
Sending solstice and festive love and hugs into the atmosphere for you all to take what you need.
Nancy xx
HELD 