It feels as though we’ve made up for the glacial pace of 2020 with this year passing by in the blink of an eye!
My instinct this time of year is to slow things down, to enjoy the deep dive of the darker days and go inward, to surrender fully into stillness…aaaaah.
And yet this year the world seems to be swirling with aliveness, with the coming emergence of the light in a way I have not felt since the beginning of the pandemic.
Are you feeling this too?
[SPOILER ALERT: Changes, Reinvention and BIG Emergence coming your way soon!]
In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the shortest day of the year – the day when our access to the Sun’s power is at its lowest.
According to Rudolf Steiner, this is the opportunity for us to turn inward, to draw power from our own light. In Waldorf education, one of the many creations of Steiner, the children walk a large spiral, in the dark, to a lone candle in the middle, where they light their candle and walk back out through the spiral, but this time with their light to guide them. It’s so tender to see their nervous little faces as they walk to the light, only to walk back out with an energy of triumph!
Do not underestimate this light within you, even though it may seem so very small and distant at times.
In the long nights of winter, the strength of our internal light is enough to navigate even the darkest of times — like the effects of a loooong pandemic!
This tiny flame is the fire-starter that will set your emerging journey ablaze.
And while the novel coronavirus has taken so much from us, it did offer us something in return.
Before 2020, it felt like we were on autopilot. Floating through our lives, striving for the next thing. The next promotion. The next speaking gig. The next relationship. The things that would — should — make us happy in the long run.
But what I learned in the past few years is that the answers aren’t outside of us. We don’t need to go on a solo trip around the world to find ourselves (and believe me, I have a dream!).
As much as we love Elizabeth Gilbert (and we do!), we can’t Eat Pray Love our way out of the world’s pain and suffering. Everything we need to be happy and fulfilled, we can find within ourselves.
This pandemic has given us the ability (and time!) to turn ourselves inward. Which inevitably ends up turning us back outward. When we do the work to connect to ourselves and fill our cups through self-care and rest, we are then able to move this energy outward and use it to nurture our relationships.
And to do the work that really matters. In a way that works for US.
Last year, we were stretched and stretched and stretched all year long. We learned just how resilient we are.
This year? We ride the fire.
Together.
I’m so grateful for you, the Emerging Women tribe. I’m grateful for the relationships we’ve forged throughout the years and for our shared humanity.
However you celebrate this time of year may you feel the love that surrounds you.
