However, for me the New Year started at the winter solstice, not that long ago, but at a time when we honoured the suns return on December 21st.

On that morning I went for a walk, honoured the trees around me, especially the oaks that stand strong and powerful and line my route through the forest.   Their majestic limbs embody the seasons, the turning of the wheel of life, through the winters restful healing, the fertile freshness of spring, the joyful magnificence of summer and the abundance and wisdom of autumn.

Nothing stays the same, everything changes, some life cycles are short some are extraordinarily long, think of a butterfly, think of a sunflower, think of the two legged and the four legged, the finned and the furred, think of consciousness, think of our world, think of the universe and the galaxies, ever changing, miraculous and magical, unfolding in front of our very eyes, every second of every day.

It would seem that 2012 is marking the end of a huge cyclical process of consciousness, nobody knows what this year will bring although there are many who prophecy apocalyptic change.  Change is afoot, there is no doubt, but what it will be, nobody really knows.  For me I am setting my intention to live in abundance in all areas of my life, in spirit, in love, in community, in grace, in wisdom and in courage…………..

Embrace each day and let if unfold with grace and courage, live it, love it, give love and live from the heart.  The thinking mind can aid us but our intuitive mind; our intuition that comes from the heart is our true wisdom, our instinctual wildness, follow it.  Follow the wildness that speaks to us all, don’t tame it, diminish it or ignore it, find the courage to embrace it and let it lead you to pastures new.

The image I have posted here was originally a photograph taken on the solstice morning; it was of an old gnarled ivy vine that had wrapped around an oak tree.  After I “played” with it, so much was revealed.  The two magi that stand sentinel to the vulvar opening or our mother earth, and sitting atop is the butterfly of transformation.  What is mother earth birthing?  What hidden mysteries lay in the depths of her womb that are yet to be revealed?

Its a time to honour this darkness, to reflect and have gratitude for these dark days bereft of light.  To see the beauty in the trees nakedness, empty of their summer fullness, to see the wisdom winter brings in teaching us about the need for withdrawl as an essential part of renewal.

As we honour this darkness we also,  honour the return of the sun as the solstice brings hope to our lands as the planet experiences the first slow turn towards the spring. Let us remember the positive, enriching aspects of winters bleak darkness.  Long walks in the frost, wrapped up to keep the cold away and returning for tea by the crackling flame of an open fire.  Sitting in candle light, reflecting on the year past and like the trees shed their leaves we too can take time to reflect on what no longer serves us in our lives, and let these drop away like a falling leaves.

The darkness acts like a nurturing womb, we are held safe in the darkness whilst we rest and replenish our energies for the coming year and learn to connect to our own inner light.  Our mother earth is holding space deep in the mysteries of the dark loam, the womb of the earth, for in these seeds and bulbs basking in slumber , lay our future hopes and dreams, the promise of life and renewal, a future garden of delights.

Albert Camus wrote  ”In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer”

I shall be celebrating solstice with a dear friend Ali who has organised a circle of light for friends  to make a despacho to honour our new becomings, the darkness  and to give gratitude to the return of the sun…………..

Happy Solstive everyone

garden of delights – recent watercolour

A friend sent em this video yesterday in response to my call for sending good vibes over to me, I was feeling rather overwhelmed with issues that had arisen, not knowing which way to turn, nobody could give me the answers, this I had to find out for myself, journey and use my intuition to guide me to what is right.  But it was so nice to know I had friends holding a good space for me, and this “connection” , heart to heart is fundamental to me in my wellbeing.

The vidieo footage did send me right back to 1966, I was 17 and had just become a mother.  Bitter sweet memories for me, guess for  a moment though I did become that 17 year old, with lots of confused feelings, joy and deep sadness but instantly I knew, that although part of my journey,  it is not with me today, I could honour the teenager in me, and know that I wouldnt be who I am today without that experience, I can see it, accept it and move and not be drawn back to those harrowing times and relive it today.  There is no need, like all things, they have their time and space, but we come to a time when they no longer serve us and we need to let them go, let them die and allow space for new seeds to be nurtered and spring forth into full blossom

Tomorrow I start to grow a seed that has been laying dormant, I am starting to train as a transpersonal art therapist, so looking forward to all the gifts that are coming my way !! and will in time share many others.

coming together…………  its the only way

Thanks for sharing this me Ali http://lucidhealing.wordpress.com/author/lucidhealing/

One of my all time favourite women C P Estes,  who seems to write from a place that touches my soul, posted  this poem on facebook this morning,  it sure resonates with me.  It is a  poem about choosing a new life, letting the wild wolf lead you on a new journey…………..

So many of us get stuck with the demons, as we get older we allow the demons to keep us small, never straying from the known.  But there is a time in our lives when the wolves and the demons can beckon us, let the wolves win, let them steel you away, take you to that place of wildness where life looms large, where uncertainty makes us grow and rise to any challenges that comes our way.  We may get tipped off the path, fall now and again, but our wildness and the keen senses of the wolf will keep us alert, alive and full of passion.

The call came to me in my 40′s, thankfully for me I chose the wolf, life turned on its head, I grew beyond measure.  It take scourage to run with the wolves, try it, you will never look back.

STOLEN BY WOLVES

My children grown, the old folks safe in the TV room.

I climb onto the sled made of my chest bones, sinew from my guts,

bundles of food and water wrapped in my own scarred belly skin.

All is fastened down with rope made from years

of my long hair taken from my brush.

My wolves bite the air. It is snowing like a dunja slashed.

My wolves nudge, nudge; they know we are going at last.

O my children, look out the window and see

your mother riding over the edge of the world.

O my Mother, O my Father, raise up out of your bandages

and bottles. See me vanish straight into the stinging sun.

But no, my parents rattle and creak in their sleep;

my offspring are busy with where to place noses while kissing. . .

My family so sleeping, they do not hear the traces as they pull

from out the frost, snapping taut, flipping snow shatters.

My lead males rise in their shaggy frocks;

their paws make mice sounds in the snow.

and we are off in a silver spray,

over the edge of the globe,

my mighty ocean of fur and steam,

stealing me for a future time and place.

The plumes of my wolves tails fly us forward

and we ride, we ride, through ponds of stars

that sashay back and forth on their sky ribbons

as my sledge runners divide them.

Now begins a storm of paper sheet—

barrels and barrels of scrip,

reams and reams of white page,

brown bag, envelopes, all these

dropped by mill hands with muscled arms

and rolled-up sleeves

who smile down on us and cry,

“Go on! Go on!”

All the paper I never had.

All the time I never had.

All the flesh and guts of my life

stored here on this sled,

and I have been lucky enough

to be stolen by wolves

for a future time and place.

As one gathers more years, the mind

can be carried off by demons

or stolen by wolves…

and both will inevitably show up.

Choose the wolves.

—————

and, I would say to you too dear souls:

Leaping wolves will ever make life bigger

even though the sledge might veer and tremble as it flies…

whereas squatting demons will ever keep life small…

otherwise they wouldn’t be called demons,

for they do not rise in harness for your ends, but instead

want to force you into harness for their ends.

I know you know the difference.

Pondering on different books I had been reading recently, it came to me in meditation that I would make a circle of beads, perhaps to use in quieter moments to remind of the wonderful people I have in my life. Each bead comes from my collection of necklaces, earings, bracelets, some broken, all share great sentimental value.

Opening sacred space I sat and snipped the threads allowing all the beads to flow into a bowl. Choosing each one with love I threaded them onto some deep pink silken thread, remembering the people, the occasions they were given and above all the gratitude I felt for having them in my life, blowing in a special prayer for each and every person and everything I have gratitude for in my life………..

I was so enjoying doing this, that I made one for my daughter so that she can sew seeds in each one and use them to make wonderful new growth in her life.

Here is the one I made for myself

The way to maintain one’s connection
to the wild
is to ask yourself
what is it that you want.

One of the most important discriminations
we can make in this matter
is the difference between things that beckon to us
and things that call from our souls.

We choose a thing because
it just happened to be beneath
our noses at that moment in time.
It is not necessarily what we want,
but it is interesting,
and the longer we gaze at it,
the more compelling it becomes.

When we are connected
to the instinctual self,
to the soul of the feminine
which is natural and wild,
then instead of looking over
whatever happens to be on display,
we say to ourselves,

“What am I hungry for?”
Without looking at anything outwardly,
we venture inward and ask,
“What do I long for?
What do I wish for now?
What do I crave?
What do I desire?
For what do I yearn?”

It takes spirit,
will,
and soulfulness
and it often means……….
holding out for what one wants.– Dr. Estes

Mother Earth, the Mother Goddess, The sleeping goddess of the Hypogeum in Malta.  An amazing underground temple, the energy there is strong and powerful  and when I read this was the incubation chamber of dreams, this was like the “mother board” where dreams  became reality, I knew today I needed to call her in.    In doing so this image came to me it’s the mother goddess, womb like and giving birth to new beginnings,

click on the image to enlarge