Such soft times, such changing times. No wait. Such painful times, from time to time.
December 21st 2017, Winter Solstice… Hi? It’s my second Winter Solstice of the year. My first one this year was at Tiahuanaco, Bolivia with raised hands towards the Sun as he was rising above the mountains while I stood there with a lot of other people while we also celebrated the Aymara New Year.
Today I searched for five stones as part of my Hatun Karpay initiation and tonight I am burning my beloved Palo Santo, white sage and candles. Winter’s here. The shortest day and the longest night are here which means we are slowly moving towards more light again. I was talking to someone about this recently and we found out we share the same emotion it brings along, it’s such a warming notion to us.
Letting go
I learned something quite random this year while traveling and it brought me back to, what my whole life seems to be about these days, letting go. Having the urge to want to buy something physical was mostly easily met when I simply took a picture of it. I realized I don’t need it nor did I really want it, I simply wanted a reminder for myself that said ‘I have been here, I have seen this. I have experienced this.’ The photo was able to do all that with one click, with one capture.
I can’t quite recall how it brought me back to very well realizing I, we all, have to let go of things, situation, people, moments, pain, tears, emotional weight. The Summer even. It all becomes heavy luggage. The candle warms up both my hands, almost the way the Sun would do, I hold the five stones in my right hand and blow all I need to let go of into the five stones.
It is closing up another year, reflecting on what I experienced and thus learned, excepting what is and letting go. Going slow, going my own pace while this year is wrapping up.
Breathing in, breathing out. Releasing, releasing, releasing.
Above: Winter Solstice in Bolivia on June 21st. Below: Winter Solstice today (December 21st) in the Netherlands.
IJsselvrouw 