In the Southern Hemisphere, where I live, Christmas (which is today) falls in the same week as the Summer Solstice, also known as Midsummer, the central turning point of the season. The solstices might be understood as rituals of light. They mark the shortening and the lengthening of the days, and with the day, thus the light. Terry Patten beautifully touched upon one way we might symbolically hold this turning of the light :
At this time something universal in the human spirit is rising to celebrate the light that defiantly, brightly shines — even now, in what is (in the Northern Hemisphere) the darkest time of the year. While the lights sparkle and rich aromas and melodies rise up, the cold bites and the body yearns to hibernate.
It can be one of the most wonderful, and, paradoxically, one of the most difficult times of the whole year. We are made to notice light and fullness, but also darkness and emptiness; we are reminded of our connectedness, but also of our aloneness.
Every person we love (including every person, alive now or not, who we have ever loved) awakens our recognition of the Universal Beloved, That which is the essence of all that is lovable and loving, the One from whom we can never be separated.
Giving gifts is a way to remind ourselves of love, to enact our gratitude, to express the spirit of generosity that is our only sanity.
And yet so is being quiet and still, and noticing the fullness that is always already present.
And so, of course, life requires us to choose again. To find our heart’s “yes” to both light and darkness. To find a way to walk with love in this still only half-made world, this place where love is yet to fully take its hold.
In the community where I grew up, our neighbors stepped over boundaries by gathering for a Hannukah party one night and singing Christmas carols through the neighborhood the next. Together, these rituals healed something in us, individually, and collectively.
May your heart find a way to practice this holiday season. May you find a way to notice the light in the darkness in every single body, to notice the non-separation that lets you reach across the gaps that face you!