With the arrival of the new year, I started reflecting on what this holiday really is, a collective agreement that we are entering something new. It’s an opportunity to leave behind something because we say so and step forward into our dreams.
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I am a child of the Earth, and for most of my life really disregarded this day as a man made holiday, separate from the dream of Nature. I felt just whatever about it.
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For whatever reason, this year I was inspired to engage in this man made event, which brought me to revel in its power. What a significant moment, here and now I declare this, and so it shall be because I say so and because I put my faith there, then reinforced by the collective all taking this moment to do something along the same lines.
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What a sacred opportunity to face ourselves and get real, with what’s working in our lives, with what’s not, to take some time to reflect and to give oneself the opportunity to really check in and explore what one cares about and wants to see in their lives. Man made or not, this is powerful!
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Through my reflection I started looking into the portals that Nature offers us with this same quality. Whether it falls on the new year or not, the Earth cycles go through rhythms, times when things are beginning, times when things are dying or ending, and everywhere in between… going through the budding, blossoming and fruiting stages of development and then dying back, as do we; simply the Earth reflecting back the mechanics of Creation, which we are part of.
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Nature shows us this with the turning of the seasons, each with its own teachings. There are times where we plant things, be they in our gardens or in our hearts and minds. And there are times where we pull back the weeds, or when the earth lies fallow or dormant in stillness, or times when storms pass through and transform everything as we knew it. Nature shows us that things are constantly dying and being reborn on a small and large scale; there is a constant force of renewal, in the macro and micro. Springs assures us of new growth and the fruition of new beginnings we’ve been anticipating through the winter time, does it not? And the tree drops its branches only to become fertile soil in times to come.
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Within nature’s precious cycles we can look to the phases of the moon, offering a more micro season of rebirth. Each month the moon is born anew, and we are offered the doorway of the moon phases to dream new beginnings; each new moon marks a new cycle, with the apex of the full moon being the fullest expression of that cycle. In ancient times, especially as women, we would align with this force of renewal to dream a new dream. Starting in the sacred darkness of the new moon, we would go within and reflect on what we want to create within that cycle. As the moon waxed and came into fullness we would, and still can, see our intentions manifest or where we are at with them reflected back to us. What a gift.
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Each day the sun rises.
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Each day the sun rises, and it is a new day, unknown, fresh and new. The birds rejoice, greeting that sacred dawn, the light and the warmth. Wow, what if we lived like that, really greeting each day as a new day, an opportunity unknown and full of potential. Because really it is that way, we don’t know if we’ll live to see the sunrise tomorrow or even the sunset today. Not in a fatalistic way, but really the hopeful rejoice of receiving and living in this precious present moment. And how do we want to live in this precious present moment?
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I feel like that is such a gift of the New Years, for our culture to pause, and to reflect. That touch of femininity I feel is something we yearn for, to know our power and recognize our ability to connect with ourselves and know ourselves, more intimately than our name or what we do, I mean like really know ourselves, what’s working, what’s not… because we know. Sometimes we might not think we have time to know or do something different, but we know, and we do have that power to pause, and to do something different. In any given moment… And may we utilize that secret ingredient of faith that we have during the moment of the New Year to align with our sacred rebirth, whenever we need to.
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There are so many ways in which we can mark a new beginning, a new moment. We can jump into the living waters, pausing to breathe, clean out our car or our closet. Or simply just do something different… in our minds or in our action.
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To sum it up, I am humbled by the truthful reflections from nature that there is constant change, and that the sun does rise anew. And I am inspired by this man made holiday, because it points at an even deeper truth, that we have this power at any moment… to choose a new way, to align with our dream or to do that thing we’ve been waiting for, to make that phone call or do that thing we’ve been yearning to do, or to stop doing that thing that hurts us.
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So may we take what we see from Nature and what we see in this truthful reflection that we have the power to say yes, to say no, and to work on behalf of our happiness and the goodness of what is true and real, because we say so, because we have the power to align with our will and with our faith on behalf of life, within us and around us and that life yet to come. May we use this power in a good way, and perpetuate the goodness that is.
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Monika Szrek