Happy Winter Solstice! This time of the year is all about the light. Chanukah is called the Festival of Lights, with eight nights of candle lighting to commemorate the miracle of the oil. Kwanzaa is celebrated by lighting seven candles to represent the seven principles. Houses and trees are decked in holiday lights. And Jesus was born under the light of the star of Bethlehem. Everywhere you look, there are candles and fires, beckoning us toward the light and the warmth.
But in nature, this is the darkest time of the year.
Which offers us a beautiful invitation to go inward to tend our own light.
If we’re feeling confident, creative, appreciated, it’s pretty easy to tap into our own glowing goodness. We radiate love and compassion, for ourselves and others. And our shining light reflects on another person, creating an even bigger light.
But what about when sadness, grief, frustration, even hopelessness, overwhelm us, and we feel no light.
Even if your light is not roaring in radiant flame, it is still burning. It may be just a tiny glow of an ember, but it is there, offering a spark of hope. It may be a faint flicker, but it is alight because you are alive.
And if you fan the flame with a single spoken gratitude, the smallest of thank you’s, I promise you, the light will spark. And the more you can focus on what tiny goodnesses there are, the more that light will grow.
And when your light grows, the light around you grows. And, as corny as it sounds, one day you’ll look up and notice you are no longer huddled in darkness. You are shining, radiating, basking in the richest, truest light that is all of us.
I invite you to take some quiet time and feel into what warms your heart, what helps you feel authentic and loved. When do you feel most connected to who you truly are?
How do you spark your own light?
How do you spark the light in others?
How do others spark the light in you?
I invite you to tell someone how they shine in your life. Maybe even ask them how you shine in theirs. We are all reflections of love and light, and the more we shine, the more our world shines.
May you find your light, embrace your light, and shine your light in the world.
And may we see each other’s light, and help each other shine.
May this season fill you with love and light.
“I honor the place in me where the entire universe resides.
I honor the place in me of love and light, truth and peace.
I honor the place in me where, when I am in that place in me, and you are in that place in you, there is only one of us.”
~ translation of the word Namasté
With a heart full of light and love,
Ruth
