The Winter Solstice is here.
Solstice means ‘sun standing still’. Honouring the Solstice, the Solar New Year, marking the end of the Earth’s cycle, has been a celebration for many human beings across many millennia.
I like to acknowledge and celebrate the shortest day of the year by lighting a candle … signifying the anticipation of a return to the light. Sometimes, the dark months can be overwhelming, but darkness can be one of the greatest catalysts for personal growth and transformation. 
I am consciously allowing myself to feel my emotions and experience my own darkness during these dark days. I am asking my feelings to guide me because my feelings are my truth. I am using this time to rest and reflect. As nature slows down and seeds lie dormant in the silent earth, I am choosing to make this a time of solace, to seek comfort in resting, relaxing and finding peace within. I am relying on the practices of yoga nidra and yin yoga sessions on my mat to help me by-pass the crazy festivities of Christmas and New Year celebrations.
The Winter Solstice is a perfect time to set intentions. Contemplating and manifesting my desires helps illuminate my path … through the darkness of winter, toward a light, bright future. I am focussing on letting my energies rest in the anticipation of discovering new inspirations … building slowly … alongside the return of longer days and the light … being with the nature of things … with the cycles and rhythms of my own personal growth … developing, changing and nurturing myself with love, compassion and an acceptance for all that is.
In my own way, to mark the Winter Solstice I have written this poem and have created the collage painting you can see above.
In Midwinter
Everything happens in Midwinter,
the Cold Moon shines, breathing the landscape
alive as the sun shelters low in the sky casting
sentry shadows to show where you belong.
It happens best when you rest,
when that unyielding shell softens, releasing
its grip on your sternum, revealing the softer
kernel sitting close to your whispering heart.Â
It has been a long time, since the trees
let go of their leaves … light is fading
fast as darkness swirls, gathering, cloaking
the earth in inky blue, leaving old crows on bare
black branches, bustling, caw, caw, cawing,
wrestling for warm spaces to roost while bats
begin their nightly flutterings, floundering,
shuffling, shifting, searching, falling, into torpor.
Everything happens in Midwinter,
the night-time ack ack ack of amorous foxes
screaming for a mate and then the day-time
silvery song of a robin inviting you to stay awhile.
It happens best in the dark,
when night rides go on forever and no drop
of noise disturbs the peace you have discovered
with the silver-winged owl flying at your shoulder.
LyndyH 