During this time of year, when there are SO many feelings...regret, bittersweet remembrance, loneliness, playfulness, gratitude, hope for renewal...I find myself retreating into the quiet, out of the madness of religious wars, commercialism, and social duty, and diving deep into my inner stillness.
© Donna Van Keuren
The illusions of the season long ago lost their luster for me, and I've made peace with what is now. What has emerged on the far side of festivity is deeper, quieter, and much more catalytic. It has little to do with family or presents or parties. Those have largely drifted on beyond me. It has nothing to do with Christian tradition. It has everything to do with transfiguration.
I use that word intentionally.
When the night is long, and shadows are deep, and the cold can be felt in my bones, this is when I am closest to the Divine within, who holds my shadow until I am ready to hold it myself. It is during this time that I find soul alchemy is most accessible. My heart is broken open. I am available. I am without agenda...without distraction.
My gift to myself during this time of potential is to surrender into the mystery of the emptiness...to allow the brilliance of all my experience, release it to be transformed, and celebrate the void that remains. This sacred emptiness is my birthing chamber. It is the cauldron that holds my vast past and all that is still possible. Then the fire of my acceptance and witness burns away my story. It distills my wisdom into gold. It creates space for the more of me that is waiting to shine through and create a new day.
I use that word intentionally.
When the night is long, and shadows are deep, and the cold can be felt in my bones, this is when I am closest to the Divine within, who holds my shadow until I am ready to hold it myself. It is during this time that I find soul alchemy is most accessible. My heart is broken open. I am available. I am without agenda...without distraction.
My gift to myself during this time of potential is to surrender into the mystery of the emptiness...to allow the brilliance of all my experience, release it to be transformed, and celebrate the void that remains. This sacred emptiness is my birthing chamber. It is the cauldron that holds my vast past and all that is still possible. Then the fire of my acceptance and witness burns away my story. It distills my wisdom into gold. It creates space for the more of me that is waiting to shine through and create a new day.
© Donna Van Keuren
This is alchemy of the highest order. The darkness in me, once withheld from my love, marries with my inner light and there is a birth of something new, something compassionate and creative. It is a dawn like no other, and the gift of my allowing.
© Donna Van Keuren
Wherever you may be in your own journey, celebrating new life or releasing into endings, I hope you feel grace holding you in the knowing that you are exactly where you are supposed to be and you are loved exactly as you are.
May this coming trip around the sun illuminate us all.
Blessings.
May this coming trip around the sun illuminate us all.
Blessings.
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