Winter Solstice Reflections
How are you doing this holiday season? What are you bringing in this year?
Do you have similar holiday traditions to when you were a child or very different? We associate certain foods with different holidays according to our historical culture and where and how we live today. My parents grew up on the Canadian prairies in a time when they ate what they grew on the farm. For Christmas when I was young we had steamed carrot pudding - grated carrots, potatoes, flour and sometimes raisins - with a brown sugar sauce on top. It was made from food from their cold storage pantry and that still tastes like Christmas to me. What foods do you enjoy this time of year?
Are you looking forward to your plans for the holidays? Feeling dread? Sadness?
What was your experience like as a child? It makes sense that people who experienced a lot of chaos, instability and trauma have a complicated and uneasy relationship with the holidays. Your primary experience may have been feeling left out and disappointment rather than excitement and anticipation.
Some people create new traditions as adults, and some don’t want anything to do with these holidays. We can honor what we need and want in many different ways, from building new traditions to disengaging completely. We can give ourselves a break and stop shaming ourselves for what works for us. It doesn’t make us a Scrooge or a Grinch.
Winter Solstice into brightening days
What changes might you like to bring into your life in the upcoming weeks and months? Are you happy with how and with whom you spend your time? What would you like to bring in closer and what needs to be released?
Life can have a relentless rhythm that pushes and pulls us into actions that we may no longer find fulfilling. The holiday season might be busy for you with company and family. This contemplation may need to wait a few weeks. As you slow down, what does your heart know?
We move into a quarter turn from the perhaps welcome chill and bright colors of autumn leaves and, depending on where we live, to cold winter weather and crunchy snow.
What might you like to say goodbye to from autumn? What might you welcome as winter begins?
We mark a half year from summer solstice with the longest days, to winter solstice with the longest nights. We’re approaching a new year, with it’s possibilities.
What comes up for you as you reflect on the questions of the season and the upcoming year?
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