Light Always Follows Darkness

Light Always Follows Darkness….

As we approach the Winter Solstice on Sunday, December 21 at 6:03 PM EST, the darkness is winding down.  Sol  means sun, and the origin of the  word Solstice  means to make stand – to make the sun stand still.

There is an ancient Celtic belief about the Solstice: the wheel of the year stops briefly at the time of the Winter Solstice. A moment of stillness. I love that sense – a pause, to look back over the year, be grateful for blessings and lessons, and a time to choose what to take with you into the New Year, and what to leave behind.

This is also a good time to choose a Guiding Word for the New Year.  A guiding word,  or two words or a phrase helps guide us, focus us, keep us on track. Our inner wisdom knows the right word for us for 2015….just let it rise up, without judgment. You will be made aware of it at the right moment.

The story of this year is almost over.  I offer you A Blessing for the New Year  by John O’Donohue from his book To Bless the Space Between Us:

The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The gray window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colors,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the curragh of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.