An Invitation on this Winter Solstice

I’ve long been mesmerized by the cycles and rhythms of nature. I try to catch the sunrise and sunset each day, and love watching the moon transform from a giant, glowing orb to barely a sliver in the sky. Two of my favorite days of the year are the summer and winter solstice. I feel closely connected to the earth on these days, both of which come with the gifts and promise of new seasons… sun-kissed cheeks, bare feet in the grass, chasing fireflies in summer. Perhaps more mesmerizing than the summer solstice is the winter solstice. Summer is a celebration, a time of expansion. Winter is a contraction…curling up, hunkering down and turning inward. This contraction feels so natural to me…to expand in the summer I must contract in the winter.

Poised before the New Year, the darkness of the winter solstice is a natural time for inner exploration and reflection. Maybe you have a list of resolutions already brewing for the New Year. My advice? Don’t make any…not yet, at least. So often our resolutions focus on the external. “New year, new you!” comes at us in some form from the media, social, internet, ads, and more. Nearly always with a focus on reinventing or changing our outer selves. What if this solstice you focus on your inner self? The true growth and transformation we’re looking for always comes from within.

Use the shift in seasons and the energy in the earth to turn inward and consider where you have been before you decide where to go next. If you’re not sure where to start, here are some questions to ask yourself…

• What is ending for you? What would you like to let go of and leave behind? It could be negative thoughts or limiting ideas or beliefs.
• What lessons have you learned this past year? Are these lessons part of larger themes in your life?
• What new beginnings do you desire…what seeds do you want to plant in the darkness of winter?

May the darkness of the longest night of the year be an invitation for quiet contemplation. Tomorrow, bit-by-bit, the daylight will increase in a slow rebirth that will come in the spring.