Taking Stock

Heart ornament
hanging from Pinon bough on our front door
welcoming all who enters into our home.

2018 Winter Solstice is just around the corner. There is still time for each and every human to take stock. For those of us practicing an Earth based spirituality, this longest night of the year is the beginning of a new year. This time offers an opportunity to take stock both within and without: what to let go of and what to commit to as we meet the coming light.

BEing one who is often referred to as "the canary in the coal mine" with my hypersensitivity, over the very recent past I am aware of Mother Earth's struggle to maintain her equilibrium so that all BEings inhabiting her can not only survive but thrive. My heart hurts which to me is my mere physical reflection of Mother Earth's pain. 

"Winter Solstice, Yule: 

we have entered into the darkness, 

but just as it grows to its greatest extent, 

the light is reborn. 

This is a time to celebrate 

all that warms us and gives us hope. 

The spiritual work of Solstice is first to cleanse and let go, 

to accept the setbacks, mourn the losses, 

and give thanks for the blessing of the passing year. 

And then to labor as midwives to bring forth

 what we want and need in the year to come, 

personally and collectively."

from Starhawk's "Winter Solstice: A Seed of Light in the Darkness"

Shasta has made enormous strides with her adjustment
to living in an urban environment.
She is a stellar exemplar of a BEing's capabilities
for letting go of the learned and familiar ways.

This time of darkness allows each of us to delve into our beliefs, attitudes, practices both inward and outward, to meditatively question the effects of these and to shift our BEingness towards a more loving, caring, unselfish and passionate stance both inward and outward. 

We humans are at a crossroads: "Twelve years. That’s all we’ve got to fix runaway global warming. If we don’t? Hundreds of millions of people are destined to become victims of severe droughts and flooding, extreme poverty and hunger. Climate scientists couldn’t be more clear, or more in agreement, on just how dire this crisis is." From Regeneration International who promotes globally "regenerative food, farming and land-use as a solution to not one, but many unfolding global crises . . . We can’t solve the climate crisis just by cutting back on fossil fuel emissions. We have to rebuild the global agriculture system so we can build healthy soils capable of drawing down and sequestering tons of carbon."

Will we humans, individually and collectively, not only take stock but step up to the returning light with a commitment to alter how we live our daily lives and put to rest our human centric way we walk upon Mother Earth? My  dear friend, Rob, in Northern California writes in his annual holiday poem: "This chaotic world can be healed." 

Rose quartz heart laying on the heart quilt
created years ago by my mother.
Rose quartz is known for its heart opening qualities.

This healing cannot occur without a major overhaul of what it means to BE human at 2018 Winter Solstice. Rob believes opening one's heart is essential for healing ourselves and our home planet.

As each of us is taking stock, may we

.