Deep Winter Affirmation Prayer - Happy Holidays!

Dear Friends ~

I want to wish you all a beautiful Holiday Season. I LIKE the words “The Holidays” and what lies behind them. Much of the world will be celebrating this month ~ I like that we call them the Holidays, plural, acknowledging each other and understanding that something is shared. It is a special, magical time of year that many of us know can turn backwards on itself, when we try to do too much, be too much and end up just feeling empty, lost and alone. They myth that ‘everyone else is happy,’ ‘everyone one else is full of good cheer’ is easy to believe and contributes to isolation and feelings of inadequacy.

My family celebrates Christmas. And Chanukah, St. Lucis's Day.  But, of the many ‘Holidays’ of winter, The Winter Solstice, or Yule is mine.  My ancestors came to America from Scandinavia, sometimes called “The Land of the Midnight Sun,” because at the point of the Summer Solstice the sun never sets; literally still shining at midnight. Last year I was in Scandinavia to see “The Midnight Sun,” it was one of the most incredible and spiritual times of my life. On the very top of an eleven story ship, I watched one night as a huge, full moon rose, bursting with light from a dark sea in the east. It was the biggest moon I had ever seen in my life, and I’ve seen big moons, as I was born in the desert. This sea-moon was twice the size of any desert-moon, so big it looked impossible, it rose silently from the black water dripping liquid gold. In the west, the sun was still above the rim of the horizon, just beginning to set in a froth of violet, pink, peach and soft, spun gold. All in the same sky, at the same time. It was 2:00 a.m.

At the opposite Solstice point; during the depth of winter, the darkness is total and the sun does not rise at all. Here the celebration of Yule (or Jül) was born; huge fires were lit; to stave of the darkness; to help bring back the sun. Great Yule logs were burned, and people drank mead around the bonfires listening to minstrel-poets singing ancient legends. This dark, cold time of the year is a paradox; both the most depressing and most hopeful of times. It is the period when, in early history, people sometimes actually feared that the light might not return. In Northern Hemisphere cultures, this period of cold and darkness was also actually the most dangerous time of the year; there was always the very real possibility that food and fuel might run out with no means left for survival, as well as the always present potential that the weather itself could bring destruction.

In the Northern Hemisphere the earth is in an orbit where the sunlight is at it’s weakest in December; it is during this time of darkness that people have traditionally turned inward to contemplate the meaning and the vulnerability of life. In the long Arctic night, hearts have always looked forward with longing toward the return of the light. Though the nights are the longest, and the darkness is at its deepest in December; it is at this point; at the point of Solstice, Yule or Sun Return; that everything shifts. The circling journey is no longer a descent into darkness, but a rise toward the reawakening of the light.

I would like to share with you, as my Holiday gift one of my favorite poems. It truly is one of my favorites, even though I wrote it myself ~ or perhaps because I wrote it myself. It speaks of things that I feel very deeply. I too have often felt the deep sadness that this time of year can bring, but I know it to be part of the circling of life. Our world makes another circle through the seasons, just as we ourselves circle through the ups and downs of life. As a metaphor, the earth is a magnificent guide, for in truth, it is darkest just before the dawn. By watching and feeling the turnings of the earth we are shown many things, one of the most important is hope. The sun will rise. The darkness will end. Spring will come again, to every heart just as it does to our Mother the Earth. May the Blessings of the Solstice be with you, whichever hemisphere you watch from, it is all part of a magnificent dance choreographed by the greatest Dancer of all. May you have joy as you join in Her dance. Glædelig Jul!


Deep Winter Affirmation Prayer
                           

The year ends in darkness, with absence of light
Days shortened and shadow enshrouded
Long, still ebony hours of night
Silent and dimly cold clouded

Yet the voice of a dream affirms meaning in night
With purpose the darkness is rife
It whispers the chill, stark absence of light
Is a metaphor searching for life

In the deep cold of winter, the length of the night
Nine candles glow bright from afar
The Solstice returns with a warm, waxing light
Earth is lit by the hope of one star

Each soul, as the seasons, turns like a wheel
A sacred cycle each of us make
When things seem the darkest, the circles reveal
That the light may be ready to break

And so we believe that the darkness will end
That a warm wind will swallow the cold
That the world will be something we can comprehend
As the seasons expand and unfold

Once a heart understands the nature of change
It is free to wait for the dawn
Warmth is not rare, affection not strange
In total darkness; the light is not gone

The heart speaks a promise the mind cannot break
There is nothing that cannot be mended
Never a nightmare from which you can’t wake
Nor a hurt that cannot be transcended

Darkness can be washed away by the light
Disillusion by laughter undone
Depression can be replaced by delight
Despair bleached to hope by the sun

Even bone-cracking winter ends with new birth
As the world is rekindled with green
There isn’t a stain on the heart or the earth
That cannot be finally washed clean

Though our world is still threatened by darkness and pain
And we sometimes feel frightened and small
The light is still stronger, it’s strength will remain
And love is the strongest of all

©Edwina Peterson Cross



(This painting was done, with love, for Heather)