The longest nights are a gift for us to explore our dreams, visions, and to inform our spring. The lemony light of winter's sun calls us to hibernate, return to our roots. The bones of trees are revealed and snow covered ground reminds us of our vulnerability. The sun throws deep shadows, deer tiptoe through leaves, and bird calls are more quiet. There is emptiness around us.
Lao Tzu from Tao Te Ching
Be completely empty.
Be perfectly sane.
The ten thousand things arise together;
in their arising is their return.
Now they flower,
and flowering
sink homeward,
returning to the root.
The return to the root
is peace.
Peace to accept what must be,
to know what endures.
In that knowledge is wisdom.
Without it, ruin, disorder.
To know what endures
is to be openhearted,
magnanimous,
regal,
blessed,
following the Tao,
the way endures forever.
The body (season)
comes to an ending,
but there is nothing to fear.
Sink homeward to your roots. Allow the flowering to pass. There is peace in acceptance of the slowness of the season. There is peace in flowing with the darkness. The ten thousand things arise together: the spiralling smoke from hearth fires, shades of greys in the blizzard, rainbows reflecting the sun in the snow, the lonely calls of the titmouse, the crisp solo bark of a dog, the crunch of snow underfoot. All speak the same language. You are not alone.
Welcome the night for its lovely bones. Welcome the long night for revealing your past and outlining your milestones. Welcome the shadows as old friends you have always known. Welcome the emptiness as vast as the crisp night sky. Welcome visions as seeds held tightly within their arils. Welcome the silence as God softly eases home inside your heart. Welcome the way as a well-marked path through the forest. Welcome the owl, the hawk, the raven as your guides. Welcome the regal sun back as it slowly returns while breathing in your dreams. Welcome your dreams as the preview to your manifestations.
The New Year is upon us; it's time to release the homely past and mouldy regrets. The New Year offers promise of change, of our lives being different. Forget the New Year's resolutions. They only engender surface change, and more regrets. Instead, together with our God, angels and unseen helpers, we can fashion a new day, a new way of believing. We are blessed to know that with every season there is a purpose, a time under the sun.
When we create a new way of believing anything is possible. We are blessed when we know that our souls and our connection to God endures. When we know what endures we can face life without fear and become openhearted. When we feel openhearted we can relax into following the way to our soul's evolution. When we follow our soul's evolution we know peace and serenity.
This week's exercise is to examine this past year for regrets. What did you do that you wish you hadn't? What didn't you do and wish you had? Write each down on a separate piece of paper. When you feel clear inside gather up the pieces. Light a candle. Find a bowl in which you can burn those pieces of paper. Dip each piece of paper in the candle flame and breath while you watch them burn. This ritual is a return to the roots of yourself. Take your time to finish. There is no hurry, be like the sun that slowly turns, and your change will form.
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