Dec 30

Dec 30 Out of the Darkness, A New Year

This morning I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, “Living Myth” by Michael Meade, and he was speaking of the place of chaos in the Cosmos. Chaos is the necessary void, the in between darkness that swirls with both destruction of the old and potential for the new. In pre-modern times, people would consciously make space for the dark time of the year, not even counting the days around the Winter Solstice on their calendar. So by being in a kind of timelessness, the structures of daily life would fall away and they would slip into the eternal. Of course, time with its daily structures and rhythms begins again, and yet, because they paused, they saw their world differently with new eyes, new ideas and renewed hope.

I’m asking myself: What if we could do this, too? What would happen if we could ritualize the sacred pause of the darkest time of the year, letting our structures go, and making space for new structures to support our inner and outer realities?

In a way, the “shelter in place” protocols are doing this for us. And maybe that’s the perceptual shift we need? To see how these lockdowns are working “for us” rather than “against us” or “to us”…

Perhaps these dark days of COVID and winter at the turning of the year are opportunities to let the structures fall away…to be still and let the dust and grief and anger of this year settle…to open to the vastness of the eternal…and to know that change is coming, hope lives deep in the heart of all things…the days are lengthening and the darkness isn’t forever.

So here, a bit of poetic inspiration to bring the concept into more of a felt experience (and if you enjoy yoga, I’ll be teaching with this theme on New Year’s morning @ 9:30am PT - register HERE):

**“Matins“ by John O’Donohue**

Somewhere, out at the edges, the night
 is turning and the waves of darkness 
Begin to brighten on the shore of dawn.
The heavy dark falls back to earth
 And the freed air goes wild with light, 
The heart fills with fresh, bright breath
 And thoughts stir to give birth to color.
I arise today 
In the name of Silence 
Womb of the Word,
 In the name of Stillness 
Home of Belonging, 
In the name of Solitude
 Of the soul and the Earth.
I arise today 
Blessed by all things, 
Wings of breath, 
Delight of eyes, 
Wonder of whisper, 
Intimacy of touch, 
Eternity of soul, 
Urgency of thought,
 Miracle of health,
 Embrace of God.
May I live this day 
Compassionate of heart, 
Clear of word, 
Graciousness in awareness, 
Courageous in thought, 
Generous in love.