Happy Solstice!

Today is the longest day of the year. For some, it's the first day of summer, and for others it's mid summer (or reversed depending on where you live). For me, it's a new day, giving me the opportunity to reflect.

When you have light, those things that were hiding in the shadows are now able to be seen - if you choose to. Light presents awareness of those things you couldn't see in the dark. And, offers the opportunity to take a better look at things.

How many of you will take a good look, and allow yourself to be aware of what the light reveals? How many of you will remain unaware? What choice will you make?

And so the light comes forth yet again...

Cycles.

The word is full of them. Winter Solstice was yesterday, and not the cycle of the sun returning and days growning longer begins. The moon cycles from darkness to fullness, with halves in between. You've got the tides of the oceans, also based on moon rhythms. The seasonal cycles as well.

I'm particularly fond of the seasonal cycles. I'm starting to honor them. For instance, in fall, I'm hit with a massive urge to declutter, shed things, and prepare for the quietness of winter. In winter, we hibernate and honor the quietness of winter. (If you've even been outdoors in the woods, when it snows, it's incredibly quiet.) In spring, I'm ready to be social and bloom again. And in summer, it's time to relish in the sun, the harvest, good fun, and be cleansed by swimming outdoors.

Women have menstrual cycles. (So, if you're a man or a woman reading this, and uncomfortable with discussing or reading about women's monthly cycles, you might just want to skip these next four paragraphs.) And, if we pay attention, you can sense through the course of 28 days, how your body and mood changes and shifts. It's really quite marvelous. For instance, I've realized that after my utterus has cleansed itself, I'm pumped, energized, and refreshed. It's pretty obvious when I'm ovulating (just ask my hubby). If I really pay attention, I actually can feel it. And right before, I'm sluggish and swollen, as my body prepares to cleanse itself.

Most women aren't happy with the cramping or the bleeding. In fact, many of the connotations associated with our monthly cycles are negative. After all, many feel it interupts things, and gets in the way. "Aunt Flo is visiting", "on the rag", and "period" are few of the terms (the nicer ones) used to speak in code about it. I've heard other women get excited about menopause - because then they can get on with their lives uninterupted. (I could go off on a tangent with this, but perhaps I'll remember to return to it at a later time.)

The fact is - it's natural. It happens, it's a way to be connected with life. I use my cycle to get in tune with myself. It reminds me to slow down and nurture myself while my body sheds and rejuvenates itself. It gives me a chance to get intouch with my inner feelings (have you realized just how hard it is to surpress how you "really" feel when your hormones are surging?) and deal with them. I've found that I need more sleep, warm foods, naps, and to just slow down in general just before and the first few days of the bleeding. I also become extremely cuddly and loving (after the cranky mood).

And so, when my cycle runs it's course, and I prepare to shed the inner uterine lining, I put my hand over my womb, thank it for being fertile and cleansing, and reminding me each month, that I need to take care of me once in a while. I enjoy being a woman, and, having my own special cycle to celebrate it. But then, that's just me.

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Okay, for those too squeamish, I'm done. :)

In any case, I always find it interesting to see the cycles in things. We've all got them. And we've got the choice to celebrate them, or ignore them, or ocmplain about them.

And that's my two cents for today.

Solstice traditions

After my last post, I got to thinking about how Christmas is connected to the Solstice and the like. I discovered a few new things. Red, green, and white are pagan colors. Hmmm... And, if you look it up, looks like Christ wasn't the only son of the gods being celebrated in the past. There are lists for each culture. Again, very interesting.

These sites had some interesting info on the Solstice:
http://www.shambhala.org/arts/fest/unconquered.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm
http://www.circlesanctuary.org/pholidays/SolsticeArticle.html

And I'm sure there's a plethora of more sites too. But, those were ones I was looking at this morning.

I don't want to be all Bah Humbug and stuff, and I love opening presents as much as the next person. It's just that I keep coming back to this weird feeling inside that there's something MORE. Even reading through all these rituals for the seasons... Oi! It's all got me thinking about so much...

Over the years, we've cut back on giving material gifts to people. It just got to be too much. So, now we offer our time - like a dinner at our place, a weekend retreat, or just time spent together. We don't give these gifts to everyone, but in the case of the ILs, it's the best. They can buy whatever they want anyway, but MIL is always cooking. So now, for her birthday and Christmas, she gets a weekend here, all meals cooked and enjoying her granddaughter twice a year. This year we signed FIL up for the Pook Picture of the Month club. Da Pook works in a medium of crayons, paint, etc. and off to Grandpa it goes.

This year I was doing the cookie thing for people too. But even that got old. After my 75th gingerbread cookie, I was tired, and felt I could've been doing something more productive with my time. Plus, with everyone on diets and the like, it just takes all the fun out of it! Blarg!

So, I've been trying to get creative with gifts that I can give. I don't mind giving my time to some people, but in some cases, we are way too far away or it's just not an appropriate gift to give. Part of me just doesn't want to do the gift thing any more, especially after reading this:
http://www.aliveness.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html

This site really hit home for me. Maybe it was trying to figure out what to get people, getting fed up with all the materialism this time of year (buy this, but that, etc.) I tried to think about what Christmas would be like without giving gifts. It scared me, because, hey, let's be honest, thanks to some people, I can really cash in on things. :) Hubby and I caught ourselves buying more stuff for each other (winter coats, he got a computer game, we got some art books, etc.) and Da Pook (instruments, books - I'm a book lover in many cases, readily admitting Book Stores are DANGEROUS territory for me, educational toys - an alligator you can thread a string through, etc.). All in all? We are over budget.

I can only imagine those people who spend a lot of money getting their parents things, plus all the other family members. I know people who buy things for a family of at least 20 (and we are talking about $25 a pop, if not more on the parents!) and then get nice, expensive things for their friends. Now, if they actually had the money to do this, no problem. But most of these people are already in credit card debit over their heads, and going fruther into it.

I must admit though, strolling into Barnes and Noble, buying things and crossing them off a list, wrapping presents in pretty packaging, does fill me with an amount of exquisite joy. *Sigh* Especially the jaunt through the book store, with all the lovely seasonal books, the sales... er, um... yeah... I was blogging here...

So maybe, just maybe, I can find some semblance of balence between the two. Argh. Think I've given myself a bit of a headache on this one, or maybe it's the constant Christmas Dora the Explorer DVD in the background that I now know by heart.

I need to reat my brain for a bit.

However, comments and thoughts are welcome on this.