the longest night of the year: sinking into the winter solstice

i woke this morning before 6. just before my alarm went off. as i pried open my eyes + snuggled down under the covers to stay warm, i slowly  prepared myself for one of my favorite mornings all year long.

the dark, mysterious, silent morning of the winter solstice.

i crawled out of bed and headed to the living room. in the total darkness, i prepared a place for meditation + contemplation on the floor. i put down some blankets and gathered a few candles, to be lit at the end of my meditation. my symbolic way of greeting the light that is now returning to my part of the earth.

i made my way to the kitchen in the dark, poured myself a cup of coffee, and then returned to the living room. i sat on the floor, with the candles and two cacti on the same blanket i sat on. i began to peruse my daily readings, pausing in between words + thoughts, to look up and out the window at the completely dark sky. so magical. so mystical.

i felt like i was the only one in the world who was awake, and that didn’t make me feel lonely, but, instead grateful. and completely calm. i sunk deeper into the silence of the darkness of this special morning.

i sat in the dark for about 30 minutes, and then i lit my candles. marking, in my own way, the turning of the earth. the rotating of the planet around the sun. the continuity of the cycle of life. realizing that i am just a tiny, small part of this entire universe. and, yet feeling that my tiny life, and your tiny life, matter more than we could ever realize. just like one tiny flame can light up an entire room.

today, even though we are just people having our own life experiences, i celebrate the idea that we are spirit as well. that we matter. that who we are meant to be are divine creatures of light.

so, just as christians celebrate the birth of light to the world in the birth of jesus christ this week, and just as judaism celebrates the light of the maccabees, and others of us celebrate light in all different kinds of ways, including the returning of the light to our natural world through the winter solstice, we are really celebrating our own nature, i think. we are all celebrating + marking a divine + special moment of awareness.

we are on our own journey, just like the moon and the earth and the sun, cycling through the seasons – living, dying, and being reborn – awakening to who we truly are, discovering our own meaning for our lives, and continuing the cyclical nature of growth + transformation.

today, as we sit in the darkness of the longest night of the year, we can breathe deep and bask in the silence + stillness of the moment. and then, just as light slowly creeps in through a crack under the door, we slowly begin to see the cracks of light that are within us… giving us the power to create and love by simply being who we are.

this is the gift of the solstice. a reminder of the beauty and possibility that is born in the middle of the darkness. the gift of light… which is meant to be share + spread.

happy solstice blessings, wild ones.

xoxo. liz.