five things friday: recieving, making, finding light
Published: Fri, 12/15/23
December 15, 2023
Hello there,
I don't know about you but I
am ready for a long winter's nap. I'll be stepping back from writing "five things friday" for the next couple of weeks to rest into the season.
There will be some napping for sure, and also some baking, some gathering, some making, some giving. And grieving. There is tremendous pain and injustice in the world, the kind of pain that can overtake what is good and beautiful. I have come
to know that I need to carve out intentional time to tend my heart so it doesn't harden to the flow of life and I become unable to hold joy or heal grief, personal or collective. So, I will spend these last weeks of 2023 doing what will keep my heart soft and able to receive the world in all of its complexity.
What do you need to keep your heart soft in the midst of the challenges of
living? Here are some I am leaning into these days.
1. Receiving. A dear one sent me some of her collection of vintage ornaments. These are not just pretty things, although they are very beautiful, they are tradition being passed along. They are friendship honoring.
They are history preserved. They are keepers of story and history never to be known.
They are treasures.
2. Making. There is a lot of making going on...shhh!...they are secrets for now.
There is medicine in hand work done with care. Be it stitching, gardening, baking, writing, holding... It is medicine that gives both ways.
Change happens in grand actions and in small moments of human connection. Offering help where you can, staying rooted to what is important, and sharing what you have, these smaller gestures go further than the simple actions themselves may indicate on the surface.
May actions grand and small
bring peace and belonging to all, and especially to those most in need.
4. Savoring the Dark
The year that has been and the year soon to be are swirling about in a liminal dance of remembering and dreaming. It is fleeting and precious, and these longer nights have me slow down enough to notice the whispers of what wants to be
known.
The Solstice will soon be here and the balance will begin to tip towards the light but until it does I am enjoying the invitation the dark extends to rest and wait and root into what is elemental and essential.
I hope you are too in what ever way is yours.
5.
A blessing for your week:
(Woodland Wardens by Jessica Roux)
May shedding the old reveal what is ready to begin anew.
I will be back in the New Year. Until then I am sending you love and wishes for goodness and love in all the ways your tender heart desires.
