Earthtones Girl

Every year I spend the last day of the year and first day of the new year cleaning, organizing, sorting, filing, and “setting the tone” as I like to call it for the new year.  I’ve been doing this for about 12 years now and it really does help me  stay focused.  I state  my intentions, goals and hopes (I hate the word resolution) as I rest my hands on ”the shoulders”, I read from The Path To Tranquility, then I smudge our entire home followed by incense (Nag Champa).    The point of all this is to settle, strengthen and prepare myself, …come what may.  To clear/change the energy…Try it,  make it your own…

The following is from here… hope it touches you the way it did me.

December 25, 2007
She Gracefully Surrenders
Winter

In fall, the earth begins the process of releasing all the things she has been holding onto throughout spring and summer, and by midwinter she has let everything go. She sits clean and undecorated in her simplicity, free of the frenzy of life that defines her in the warmer seasons. There is a quiet humility about the earth in the winter months, as animals and people retreat inside to escape the wet and sometimes freezing cold that takes hold. Inside our homes we create abundance and warmth in response to being effectively kicked indoors by the dark and cold that permeate the outdoors.We burn fires in fireplaces and make heavy, hot foods to keep our bodies warm and insulated. We may find ourselves sleeping longer hours and yearning for downtime, just like the animals deep inside their caves and warrens taking a winter-long nap. Even if we live in a warmer climate, the longer nights and shorter days have the same effect on our cycles. If we surrender to this time as nature intended, we allow ourselves to slow down, sleep more, and lower the volumes on our busy minds. At the same time, we crave company in our dwellings, and the insulated warmth of the hearth tends to bring people together, creating more warmth and fostering connections that last through the coming year.We laugh, eat, and talk, sleep, or catch up on reading, while outside our windows the earth grows dark earlier and stays cold longer, accepting as always of the process of change and her place within it. We might remember to learn from her as she so gracefully surrenders to the emptiness that precedes all form, the peace that precedes activity, the darkness that precedes the light. For everything she gives and teaches, we might offer a blessing, extending a goodly portion of the gratitude of this season her way, holding her in our hearts and thanking her for our very lives.