by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
December 21, 2018
Today at approximately 2:23 PM PST, the Winter Solstice will occur. This is the precise moment when the North Pole is the farthest away from the Sun. It’s the first day of Winter which brings the least amount of daylight, and the greatest amount of darkness. The seasons change as our planetary placement in relation to our guiding star, the Sun, alters.
I love when the seasons change, as it’s a beautiful reminder of something greater happening. It’s an opportunity to think beyond the regular day-to-day routines and contemplate the vastness of this extraordinary thing called life.
One of the greater things happening is that we live on a planet within a Solar System within a galaxy which is travelling at 1.3 million miles per hour through the Universe; all while gravity holds us in place. The maximum speed limit on most California highways is 65 miles per hour. I can’t wrap my mind around how fast 1.3 million miles per hour is, can you?
The gravitational pull of the Sun holds the Earth and the other seven planets of our Solar System in its orbit, as it orbits the Milky Way Galaxy. Now that you’ve expanded your mind in contemplation of the cosmos, consider what you’re orbiting in your life.
We orbit our most deeply held beliefs and live out our lives as the result of what we believe about ourselves, our relationship to God and others, and life itself. Your beliefs, whether inherited or consciously installed by you, dictate the context in which you live. You have the power within you to change your beliefs at any time. You can start right now by choosing to consciously believe that you are the radiant light of love. That this light illumines every cell of your body and shines out from you. Shining your light brings loving joy to you, everyone around you, and ripples out into the world.
Every mystic has experienced illumination as a flood of light in moments of deep realization of Spiritual Truth. You experience a flash of illumination when inspiration hits and suddenly
the path before you is seen clearly. You also experience a flash of light when you have an aha moment or a spiritual awareness which expands your mind. It is an experience of ultimate Truth. All that you are is God and God is all of us and more. Yes, God is all that and a bag of chips. Remembering this illumines my mind and brightens my heart.
As you enter the Winter Season, remember, you can return to this truth: the light is within you. It always has been and always will be. No matter how long a room was dark, when the light enters, the room is illuminated. Allow yourself to experience this luminous light of Truth. Let it brighten your heart with love and beam out radiantly to others with a smile or a kind
gesture.
And so it is.
