Step onto the Road

It's a dangerous business, going out your door.....

There have been those times when I decided to step onto the road ~ that path that's not quite the usual neighborhood street, not precisely the work-a-day world ~ and found myself in new territory. My place in that territory unexplored and fresh, filled with adventure ~ and with moments of consequence.

What is that road? Where is it leading? Two questions I may ask ~ and to which I receive no responses. If I had all the information about where I was headed, I may be more reluctant to simply step onto the road. Like Bilbo and Frodo, I find some of my adventures painful or difficult. If I knew those times were in my future, well, I really don't know what I'd do.

This season, the run up to the New Year, is the perfect time to review how my stepping out has gifted and shifted me. One of my steps took me out of the work-a-day world and into the space of self-propelling my days. I feel a bit out of sync. As though the norm is having a 9-to-5 job and now I am no longer normal. I no longer spend time with my work friends. TGIFs are not only no longer necessary, I have no one with whom I can or need to commiserate about work.

 Along with stepping off that path, I've stepped onto another. Planning  out my days, my time has been a challenge. There are things I want to do, things that need to get done, places I want to go. With all the time in the world open to me, I get flummoxed by its vastness. With nothing to particularly plan around ~ like a work schedule, the amount of time itself can overwhelm. I'm continuing to work with finding my own personal flow.

Some people have shared that they are jealous of all the time I now have. I rarely respond with more than a smile, nod or simply 'yes' even though I'm thinking more about the fact that my path, my road, is not theirs. They will know soon enough what it means to have an uncharted path in front of you. Then they will find their own way.

What road did you step onto this past year? Was there more than one change? What challenges did you face? What gifts did you receive? What did you leave behind? How do you currently feel about your choice?

All Saints' Day 2016

Sojourner Truth, Bartolomé de las Casas, Miriam, Origen, Malcolm X, Queen Elizabeth I, Iqbal Masih, & Teresa of Avila

Considering the seasonal closeness and thinness of the veils between the worlds, thoughts of the saints dancing nearby, celebrating with and in spite of us, brings a smile to my lips. In that place beside yet distinct and distant from us, there is no more separation. The saints find joy in everything. They celebrate, love, embrace, and glow with the light of their joy.

Where we find ourselves in the world, in this same moment, can be trying or frightening or enraging or sad. We are influenced by the moods, words and experiences of others as well as our own. However, the word influence comes from Latin and means into flow. We have choice of what influences us, what flow we step into. We can be in the flow of a mud-slinging election season. Or in the flow of the severe changes in our work environment. Or in the flow of the grief and death of a friend. All of these things touch our lives in their particular way. We can choose how much, how long or how deeply we want to allow ourselves to be in that flow. Don't deny the feelings. Don't wallow in them either. Learn the power of balance.

Sometimes, the immediacy of someone's words or actions or disappearance in our lives whacks us off our emotional feet. That is what being embodied humans is all about. We feel in all possible ways. It's good to feel ~ to allow the joy or sadness or grief or love to rush over us. It's also good to take perspective on those feelings, to look at the joy of the dancing saints in the icon above, and recognize ourselves in that as well.

At this season, the closeness of the saints can bring us to tears of sorrow, grief and joy all at the same time or perhaps wildly in turns. While we feel our own personal feelings around them, may we have the grace to touch into their dancing too.

What do you feel about the saints who have passed through your life? Who are they? How have they affected you? What can you do to acknowledge their presence in this season?

Winter Solstice 2014

Winter Solstice ~ the shortest day and longest night of the year. Many ancient civilizations created monuments aligned with the sun rising on the Winter Solstice morn. One of the most famous is Stonehenge in the England. Also, Newgrange in Ireland and Chichen Itza in Mexico. The oldest known is the Goseck Circle in Germany, circa 4900 BCE.

The one in the picture is the temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt. The massive stone walls rise to look like hands holding the sun in the sky. Quite an incredible feat to create!

Winter Solstice is one of the markers of the rhythm of the seasons. Although in our modern culture, we label it the beginning of winter, its alternate name is Midwinter. Celebrations filled with rejoicing in the return of the sun marked it as a central seasonal feast.

I love Winter Solstice, Midwinter. My very being recognizes the rhythm it marks. Despite all the modern ways to mark time, I feel the shift within as readily as I see the days afterward begin to lengthen. For many years, I marked this time with a week-long retreat, my personal time of hibernation, to reset my internal clock and prepare for the coming new year.

Do you feel the shift from darkening days to the beginnings of more light? What do you do to mark the Winter Solstice? How do you honor the shifting season?

Summer Solstice

In the Northern Hemisphere ~ Happy Summer Solstice!

May the longest day of the year bring you grace, peace and joy!

Summer Solstice is one of the significant quarter celebrations of the pagan year. It marks the longest day. Though we often label it the 'start' of summer, it is more the midst and high point of summer instead. Neopagans refer to it as Litha or Midsummer.

Summer slides in as Spring slides out ~ on Beltane. The seasons are not so clearly delineated that they never overlap. But their cycle is predictable as one follows upon the other. With those changes, we have an inkling of what is to come.

Today has been a very low-key Solstice for me. I didn't go to the celebration where many of my women friends were gathering. Although I miss the contact with them, this particular year, I appreciate the solitude even more. My celebration is quiet, alone, gentle, reverent. In other years I relished the dancing, the reverie, the community celebration. My daughter grew up attending the women's gatherings at the Summer Solstice. So many beautiful, strong women gathered around her. She knew them for the wonder that each of them was. They saw and called forth her strength and her voice. Even in my solitude, I send a prayer of blessing and gratitude for each woman who ever shared Solstice with me.

I know many who celebrate Solstice ~ women and men alike. It is a day of Light, a day for Gladness, a day overflowing with Life. I wish each and every one of them Light, Joy and Love for the coming year. [For my friends in the Southern Hemisphere, the wish is the same, as they celebrate the Winter Solstice, the Return of the Light.]

What do you do to celebrate Solstice? How do you acknowledge the changing times of the year? Do you recognize the Wheel of the Seasons? or do you have another way to celebrate?

Let Loneliness Season You

Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you as few human
Or even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice so tender,
My need of God
Absolutely clear.

~  Hafiz

More on the theme of loneliness. A different perspective. Embrace loneliness to let it season you.... to soften and change your nature ever so slightly. 

When cooking, the seasoning is the ingredient that changes and enhances the flavor of the meal. If something ferments, that too will change the taste. These processes take time. The change is gradual, not immediate. The longer the wait time, the richer and fuller the flavor.

That's true with loneliness as well. Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly... Most of the time, I'm anxious to get past the feeling of loneliness ~ that hollow place within me that echoes each breath I breathe. I want to fill that void with light and sound and say that I don't feel lonely. But the truth is that I can fill the space with noise and light all I want, the loneliness still exists, still rests like a well of unfilled promise in the pit of my stomach.

If I embrace it, I allow that divine ingredient entry into my soul. Although I can't say for certain what will come of that, I know I will be richer for having opened the door to let it in. Its entry reminds me of my need of the Divine ~ of the Ineffable One ~ in my life. One on whom I can depend ~ and from whom I can draw strength. One of the most important reminders in my life.

How do you feel about loneliness? Do you admit feeling it? Are you afraid of it? How can you embrace it ~ even for a moment ~ in your life?

Wednesday #1

Traveller, your footprints
Are the path and nothing more;
Traveller, there is no path,
The path is made by walking.

~ Antonio Machado, Traveller, There is No Path

During this season, more than at almost any other time of year, I feel the traveller, the pilgrim within me, expressing herself more and more. Maybe it's the Spring with its new buds and greenery and lambing. Maybe it's the flow of sap once again after the sluggishness of winter. maybe it's the stretching of the limbs after hibernation. For whatever reason, my pull during this season is to move.

"The path is made by walking." Have you ever walked in a forest or on a hillside or along a road and noticed a path heading off in some unknown direction? Maybe one that was barely noticeable? What did you think? Were you drawn to explore it, to investigate where it led?

Many paths I trod in my life were barely visible markings on the ground. Others were covered with mist. still others were unlit by more than the stars of the night sky. The destination not always assured. Every step an adventure in trust. For each of these I am eternally grateful.

Ash Wednesday

Today begins the season of Lent. Every Spring millions of people the world over recognize Ash Wednesday as a turning point in their year, the start of a new season.

For me, Lent has always been the marker of a new year. It's time to reflect on the past without reliving it and acknowledging the twists and turns that led me to this place and this moment in time.

The biblical readings today include one of my favorites from Isaiah 58:6-8:

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard."

Even though I have more recently 'grown beyond' my Catholic roots, I feel the pull of this season. What about you? Whether at this time of Lent or otherwise, how do you choose to reflect on the path you follow?