A wonderful solace?
The winter solstice is when the sun stands still in the old Latin, it is the shortest day and an order from the heavens to find solace in the company of those we love and treasure, and to seek comfort in shelter and fire. The year is reborn in the darkness, with the promise of the growth that will come with lengthening daylight, the solstice gives us an opportunity to find peace with our own darkness, to look deep inside of us, to settle into our interior landscape of who we are, who we want to be and how we view the world around us. In this difficult adventure we value our companions for their wisdom, strength and care for our well being, and we all need the mercy of having a stronghold in which to retreat at this time of renewal and birth of a new year, that promises only hard labour and investment in our future, that is why we need the evidence of the fruits of our previous efforts around us, that is why we gather our true riches, those things that we value the most for this turning point in the year.
For those that are fortunately enough to have the cycle of the season, we have such a powerful natural reminder of the turning of the wheel of time, the four seasons of thirteen week that is the loudest clock in the world, relentless and ever presence, you have no chose but to view your life through the chapters of springs, summers, autumns and winters, each with their own characters and virtues. It is often that winter is casted as the villain, responsible only for darkness and depression, but that would be the same as blaming sleep for nightmares, then concluding that it was all bad and ignoring the benefits that it also brings, winter brings rest and renewal to the fields that we plough and work to feed us, it is a pest controller, a selector of the weak, it matures the compost, soaks the soil and lets it be before the growth of spring.
The same is true for us, it is a time to slow down and feel the benefits of a year of toil, to check on the healthiness of our soil, have we been nurturing it, feeding it with everything it needs, not just food, but whether it is the right nutrients, have we been feeding the soul not just the body, is our view right, are we really seeing ourselves and our action in the correct light. Darkness gives us that contrast, we appreciate the weaker lights of who are are, the actions that we do not notice in the normal rush of getting things done, of having places to be, we have to learn to love the simple pleasures of a meal shared, a long conversation in front of the fire where we really have to know what our view is as it comes out without the editing that quick chats hides. We have to be sure of our natures or the stronger natures around us will dominate the dynamics of our smaller winter quarters.
It is why we love the long walks that the solstice offers which is on most peoples top tens favourite things in the world, that is it's secret, the magic of solstice, it contains so many wonderful things, the sharpness of cold air makes walking through it a pleasure, the rich and heavy food that warms us from the inside, a beef stew that becomes a complex emotional remedy despite it's simplicity, the crack of warm bread being broken, a solid, brandy soaked Christmas cake that is craved at slowly over a month. There are the small gifts that makes us loved and understood, the endless warming cups of teas, hot chocolates for the children and young at heart (if it helps a shot of spiced rum adds a further unfolding of the heart or at least joy, purely for favouring, honest!), we seek and love good company, both for warmth and cheer. We get to reflect on our accomplishments and how they matched our goals, whether they gave us more pleasure than we thought from our great expectations.
It is a time to reflect on the stories that we tell ourselves, and we listen to the great stories of others, both from friends and the greatest storytellers of all time, which is always an interesting comparison, often they have the same themes but on a different scale. We all fight our own dragons, we all have journeys to make, conflicts to resolve and tasks to complete, and the stories of others are a chance to learn from the mistakes of those who have come before us. That is the greatest gift that we can give or receive, the right directions can save us so much time on the journeys that we want to make, they are the maps that guide us past the dangers of travelling and points us towards the real points of interest that make travel such a joy. It is winter that gives us such a nature break in where we want to get to, and it is always worth reading the map before starting to walk in the wrong direction.
However the most valuable aspect of winter is that it provide a blank canvas to start to paint a new future, a better version of what you are doing now, the habits that have formed over the last year can be reviewed, and the emptiness of winter shows each brush of paint more clearly. It becomes obvious what you are working with, if there is no joy in your life, if you are just waiting for spring to come back again, there is no hiding from the fact that you yourself is running on empty, as winter echoes the emptiness that runs deeply through nature and our reality. Indeed virtually everything in the universe is just empty space and time, we are blinded by effects, we see the electromagnetic fields but the real solid material is only the protons and neutrons deep in the middle of an atom, even our consciousness is an empty, blank space for our sub-minds to exchange ideas and form moments of binding consciousness, winter is just a gentle metaphor compared to the true emptiness of our world.
The solace of winter is that it provides this time of reflection, to pause and take stock of where we are and whether we are truly taking the path through our lives that we want to, it only by simplifying our world that we can see what is important. It is a kind of ruthless purging that a tree does with it's leaves, what is no longer need is discarded, we rest with nothing so that we can regrown in the new year, the same principles underpins minimalism, we take away so that we can access what we care for and love, in meditation we give our attention to just the breath so that our awareness can grow. The winter is just another teacher of the same lesson, it is gentle, it comes with good food, drink and even some presents, but it is the knowledge of ourselves that it can provide that is the true spirit of the season, and the most wonderful of all solace. Rejoice, be merry and ready yourself for a New year, it might get bumpy, it usually does!
