Winter Solstice occurs on Saturday, December 21st at 1:20 am PT.
It is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Here in the Pacific Northwest, our daylight hours will be from 7:55 am to 4:21 pm, about 8 & ½ hours of daylight and 15 & ½ hours of dark–almost twice as long in darkness!
Dave and I have an Advent ritual of reading a beautiful little book, All Creation Waits by Gayle Boss. Every day, it offers a story about a different animal and how this animal uses their innate knowing to adapt to the cold and dark of wintertime.
Even though we read it last year for Advent, too, the instinctual wisdom of each animal lands so deeply in me each time.
This winter, one of the messages I am working with is from Musk Rat.
Musk Rat’s physiology makes it possible for them to be a frigid-water swimmer all winter! Even when all is covered in snow and ice, Musk Rat can find plants to eat by diving deep down to the bottom of a body of water.
But even well-prepared by their amazing coat, Musk Rat gets cold after a while. So Musk Rat builds what’s called a “push up,” a pile of sticks that poke up from the water through the ice, so they can climb out of the water into this sheltered breathing room. Here Musk Rat can rest, regain their strength.
This advent, I’m taking that cue and have been practicing having a breathing room.
It’s a moment when I stop and allow myself to respond to the slower, darker season. I want to cultivate the innate knowing in me, as earth standing on two feet, about wintertime, too.
- I sit in the nook and look out at the gardens. My favorite time is to sit and breathe while dusk is falling.
- I light a special solstice candle and pause.
- I sit by the woodstove and watch the flames.
- I step outside and breathe in the crisp, cold air, looking around at the living earth, pausing from work.
- I lie down and rest on the ground (inside since it’s so wet out!).
- I sit or stand quietly outside and open my awareness.
- I soak in the hot tub at dusk and sing songs to welcome the dark.
Especially since I spend so much time in front of a computer these days, I need to balance this with moments in the breathing room. And I love the idea that I am aligning with my innate inner winter wisdom by doing this.
This breathing room gives me a moment to align my bodysoul with the rhythms of the living earth.
The rhythm of slow.
The rhythm of cold.
The rhythm of rain and
long,
gray,
dark hours.
Do you have a breathing room? How do you spend time there?
And if you’d like to step out into the great breathing room of the living earth, join me on December 21st for an outdoor Winter Solstice Celebration! Read more.
A new solstice song for you from my dear friend and Full Voice Trainer, Barbara McAfee:
Nourishing Wholeness 