Category: winter

Hone Love

As winter solstice draws near, the shadows grow longer, the light burns brighter, and the air is crisp. It’s a contemplative time, a time to reflect on the past and to gather strength to prepare for the spring. If we have done our work through the seasons, we’re able to enjoy this time and celebrate with deep appreciation.

If this season catches us unprepared, we run the risk of missing its quiet beauty. Winter for all its harshness is a time to go within. It is also a time to share.

Everyday is worthy of celebration and giving thanks. Yet living close to the land awakens an appreciation of the return of light. It is something we share with our predecessors and with people throughout the world. We receive the longer days with this recognition: That even though the harshest times may still be before us, we will have the increased vision and strength to see it through.

There are many who will not be able to feel the subtle changes of the season. There are some who do not care. For whatever reason, we have handed the reigns of power to people who have forgotten they are of the earth. They cannot feel the magic or the majesty of living. They are content to destroy it all for material gain.

Yet the lovers of the earth will continue to love.

I am learning to not curse the cold, nor surrender to the darkness. There is something that softens my heart and feeds my soul. It’s simple and it’s absolute.

I am alive. In these complex and challenging times we are alive.

And there is so very much hope in that. Celebrate the light and hone the gift of love.

It is the only thing ignorance cannot destroy. Hone love and fight like hell.

The Return of Light

Solstice is upon us. The return of light is known and celebrated throughout the world and over the ages. For most of the human clan, who live on the land and know the hardships of winter, this time of year holds tremendous hope. And while often the harshest of winter lies ahead and stored foods and supplies run low, the return of the sun is celebrated with abundance and friendship and wonder.

This remembrance is validation of the human spirit and our relationship to the earth. We drum and dance. We sing and pray. We plan the coming spring and of the wonderful bounty the earth will provide. And to those who say, “How foolish to celebrate the end of darkness because darkness has no end,” I say this, “Darkness will forever give way to light. It cannot exist in the presence of the sun”.

In these times when darkness has penetrated the soul of mankind; when the prophesies of doom have taken hold of too many, those who can still celebrate, must.

We do not celebrate theories and explanations. It’s not a feeding of the mind. It’s a feeding of the heart. There is no debate. The days will grow longer and the sun will warm the earth and the earth will give of herself so that we can be sustained. It is our effort that is welcomed, not our cynicism.

There is an idea that stops us and it is called scarcity. We fear it. And we claim it as an enemy. It is said, ‘what you sow, so shall you reap’. If anything can help us turn around this ignorant time it is simply this: Put your hands in the soil. Plant seeds. Plant trees. Feed one another. And feed yourself from the cup of love and hope you have within you. Celebrate that light.

 

Thanks to WDRT  for  the opportunity to speak these words on “Consider This”. You can listen to it here on Soundcloud.

Tis the Season

I come to this time of year with a mixture of wonder and dread. Living close to the land one develops a deep appreciation for the earth shedding her skins and retiring to a long slumber.

The shortness of daylight and the brilliant stars lend themselves to this season often referred to as the time of winter stories. I like to think of it as a time to dream.

There are many cultures that have a deep appreciation for this time and while I appreciate the nuances I have delighted in my own personal discovery, created my own narratives and charted my own course. I have discovered the practical purpose of celebrating the season with lights and making sure there is green around me – it helps to remind that this seemingly bleak time will surely have an end and spring will again emerge triumphant.

But I have shied away from using this season as a time to shower loved ones with gifts. And I recoil from tired carols that herald a better time.

The temporary truces, the words of peace too soon forgotten are more than I can bear. And this is where the dread comes in. I always cry.

When the tender loving of the human spirit bursts forth for a moment from the hard shell of this uncivilized time – it tears me up.

I want to scream: “Get it? Peace is possible. Hold that thought”, but then I realize most are content with a few moments of sweetness. The thought about peace somehow erases the feeling of it, and as our thoughts go fleetingly by we are on to the next and the next…

But what if this year we don’t just wait for “It’s a Wonderful Life” to teach us what we already know? What if we discover the sacred and the sanctity of our time here and hold onto it for dear life – because that is in fact what it is.

For this brief moment we are given a dear life. Enjoy it my friends. Take it for all that it has to give – not materialistically, but where the memories and the feelings never die: in our hearts.

May peace hold us close, and may our tears be joyful drops of coming home.

 

 

This piece aired on WDRT‘s 2 minute segment, “Consider This”, which I have been fortunate to work on since June, 2017. You can hear it live or live-steamed every Thursday at 5:28pm CST or around that time…