Bringing Light into the Dark

​As we enter this New Year, and having traversed through the Winter Solstice a few weeks ago, I find myself reflecting on the Light that each of us possess. It is this Light that we must bring forth into the darkest of the days in this winter season, as we gradually and slowly move toward more light in the daytime. What are your Gifts? What are your innate talents or gifts that allow your Light to shine forth? What support do you need to continue shining? 

These feel like important questions to me as we enter this new year. I’ll be leading a women’s workshop on Saturday, January 5th, 2019, and we’ll be exploring and discovering our Compassionate Intentions (rather than New Year’s resolutions). To accomplish this we’ll begin with an embodiment meditation. We all have a dire need, whether we know it or not, to be able to feel ourselves in our bodies and feel the ways that we exchange with the world. Our bodies are resonant and we vibrate and contribute to the world around us. Those around us, and the ‘world’ around us, also have a vibration and contribute to our personhood. 
 
Some writers and poets seem to have this knowing deep in their bones. For example, Mary Oliver writes, “Poem of the One World.”
 
This morning
the beautiful white heron
was floating along above the water
 
and then into the sky of this
the one world
we all belong to
 
where everything
sooner or later
is a part of everything else
 
which thought made me feel
for a little while
quite beautiful myself.
 
 
And Anais Nin writes, 
“Each friend represents a world in us,
a world possibly not born until they arrive,
and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
 

Notice what happens inside your body as you read these two pieces of written art. For myself, I feel a connection with myself and those around me, as well as deep peace. 
 
We have to know our bodies to be able to recognize and shine from our Inner Gifts. Another aspect that is being called upon us as human beings is to create space for meaningful exchanges with one another. It is so easy in this day and age to find one’s self isolated, maybe connected through the internet, yet cut off from other human-to-human, face-to-face interactions. We are being called to create the ‘fires’ of hearth and warmth where others can sit around and share about what is most meaningful to them in their life. How else will others know us? How else would we know that we’re not alone?
 
This is what has been on my heart and mind – meaning, how can we forge new pathways in this year, 2019, where we create more opportunities for embodiment and for meaningful exchanges with one another on a human-to-human level? As you consider or set your new year Compassionate Intentions, I hope it is one where you’ll find more meaning, depth and embodiment in your current life.  
 
May you continue to be a Light in this world, and may the Light of the world shine blessings upon you.
 
With Love.
And Happy New Year!

written by Janet Wepner