All of heaven and all of earth coordinate at the Winter Solstice. … Regardless of all the stories and traditions, this is a personal event of your life. It is the time that has been set up for you and Heaven to be with each other without interference. Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)
It’s all too easy to find ourselves hooked in the hustle and bustle of seasonal activities and ‘wrapping things up for the year’. We’ve forgotten that which we know deep inside: this is our time to recalibrate from the inside out. And, to do so we must empty, release, let go and recognize the wisdom that done is done.
All too often we fear being empty – even for a brief moment in time. Emptiness seems like a strange word to ascribe to the season of winter holidays with their bright lights, joyful sounds, and festivities to match. And, yet, giving yourself the gift of emptying is an important part of being prepared to receive the new that is sure to come as the sun begins her journey back to the north. After all, the full glass cannot receive more wine.
In the Christmas Story, we are told that the inn was full. And, yet a receptive place for the birth was found. So it is for each of us.
We too need to empty and make ourselves receptive to the new. Solstice is a time to declare one cycle complete, making way for another to begin. It is a time to embrace the realm of spirit and turn our backs on the material world, if only for a brief time. It is a time to bless and release all who have crossed your path in this cycle, knowing that those who are meant to return will be there in the new one.
And, perhaps most important of all, it is time to let go of who we were in the cycle that is completing. The ‘you’ of that cycle is complete as well. And a new you of your design and making awaits.
As our planet prepares to celebrate her birthday, let us honor her by taking time to reflect this gift of the time when heaven and nature sing as one. May we each sing along in our own unique and harmonious way.
I find this excerpt from Gregge Tiffen’s ‘Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story’ a beautiful reminder of the choices I can make now and moment to moment, before my time of winter solitude, and beyond winter into the spring. May it support you as well to ease into the sacredness of this time.
Prelude*
There is nothing I can give you which you have not got; but there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take.
No Heaven can come to us, unless our hearts find rest in today.
Take Heaven
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.
Take Peace
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see, and to see, we have only to look, I beseech you,
Look!
In the quiet there is tranquility. May your life move and radiate in that unity and your heart sing the hymn of peace to all mankind.
And so, at this time I greet you not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with prayer that for now and forever the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
* Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)
