Sitting in the Winter,
I recognize the winter.
It is the winter of outside stillness and internal fire.
It is the season of rest that comes after the season of gathering our harvest.
Our harvest, the energy we collect from our achievements.
It is in the winter that we gather and share in hope and light, joy and companionship.
Sharing stories and traditions that have been passed down generations and ages.
In ancient traditions it is the gathering around the fire of warmth and life that the stories,
the very myths that create the culture, are passed from generation to generation in order to stay alive themselves. In the circle around the fire, the oral traditions grow upward and outward as a foundation and a star for the youth where they sit
and for the elders where they sit.
In the present time this tradition may look very different from our ancestors. The cultural fire may be a candle and the mythologies passed may sound like very different stories. If we can see the differences as growing upward and outward then we can receive the deep connection that comes from shared mythologies.
This year looks different for all of us and we can choose the story we wish to take from it. Did we remain swallowed in the anxiety that this year brought? Did we choose to step more fully into a part of ourselves we were missing? Did we learn something new about our world and step away? Did we look our struggles in the eye and take the next step? There are no right answers, there are no wrong answers, there are only the honest answers that help us move from this place to the next.
It is in this light that we invite you to the fire.
Feel free to join us in an exploration of a story, find your part in the mythology, and share if you wish. Bring a pen and paper, a candle if you choose and an openness to explore.
