Creating Inner Spaciousness

Week 3: Our Two Basket Contemplation.

Greetings, dear Sunny Optimists,

Before we move into this next round of guidance for our Winter Dreaming time, I wanted to share a morsel of Festive cheer with you. I came across the community action below that touched my heart and made me smile. I am grateful to the Gorebridge Community Group for their sense of humour in sharing this winter joy with passersby.

Can you see the little snow people dancing together and the delightful smiles on their faces? It is bits of magic like this that sustain my optimism. There is lots of goodness around us if we take the time to stop, look and listen. On a news item today on the BBC, I learned that this is called ‘yarnbombing’. Click here to hear a lady from the Scottish town of Nairn talk about this activity that brings her and the local community so much joy.

Week 3 : Next Step in our Winter Dreaming Journey

We are now in week three of our Winter Dreaming series. In our first week, we listened for a question that would guide this personal exploration time.

Then, last week, we reviewed this year to get a sense of what unfolded for us. We travelled through each month, revealing the highlights and lowlights of our experiences. Then, we translated our insights into a beautiful image that captured our remembering.

It is now time to clear space in our awareness for new dreams, yearnings, and intentions to arrive. We need to do some housekeeping to be neat and tidy as we prepare for next week when we will enter the Dreaming Cave.

So this week, we will spend more time with the findings from looking back over the year. There are two threads to this week’s activity. One strand is to decide what we no longer need, what no longer serves us and what we wish to let go.

The second thread is to determine what to keep from this year. What we reveal will weave into our dreaming seeds for 2024 —more on this next week.

Image by Lucas Mendes on Unsplash

Our Two Baskets Contemplation

Imagine you have two baskets like the ones above. You will place anything you decide no longer serves you in one basket. These are the aspects of the year you are 'letting go.'

In the second basket, you will place elements of the year that still have energy for you. These are aspects you are 'carrying forward' and will weave into your dreams for 2024. 

Below is a step-by-step process for creating your two baskets and give insight into what to do with each basket once you are complete. 

• Sit with the materials from last week, and look for themes that arise from your exploration.

• Write down your insights on pieces of paper. Or you can use elements of nature to represent them (leaves, stones, sticks, acorns). Please have one item per insight.

• Decide which basket the insight belongs in.

• Place the notes or pieces of nature in their respective baskets.

• Keep going until you feel there is nothing more to do.

Please take your time, be with Mother Earth if you can and let her wisdom guide you. Be gentle with yourself and try not to get caught in emotion. Trust that you are clearing space for the new to arrive and that the beauty from 2023 will travel with you.

What to do with your 'Letting Go' basket.

Once you feel complete, take your 'letting go basket' outside and give the items away to the natural world. You can bury them, place them in a river or the sea. You can give them to the fire if they are paper notes. Then, say a prayer or words to honour the experiences and the learning. Know that Mother Earth will take them and let them return to the Divine. Nothing is lost; all will be healed and returned to Source.

It is all perfect, just as it is.

What to do with your 'Carrying Forward' basket 

Place your 'carrying forward basket' somewhere safe when you feel complete. Imagine placing the basket in a cool, calm, quiet place to rest for the time being. You will reconnect with the content in the basket in the New Year.

So that is us for now. I hope you enjoy this time of being with yourself and your life experiences from 2023.

A Wee Addendum

Below is a poem that I hope will inspire you. Ella Wheeler Wilcox invites us to see our dreaming in a bigger context and to know that our life experiences 'runs ever away to the bosom of God's great ocean'. She invites us to honour all that has occurred as part of the Infinite's grand plan.

As You Go Through Life by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Don't look for the flaws as you go through life; 
   And even when you find them, 
It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind 
   And look for the virtue behind them. 
For the cloudiest night has a hint of light 
   Somewhere in its shadows hiding; 
It is better by far to hunt for a star, 
   Than the spots on the sun abiding.

The current of life runs ever away 
   To the bosom of God's great ocean. 
Don't set your force 'gainst the river's course 
   And think to alter its motion. 
Don't waste a curse on the universe-- 
   Remember it lived before you. 
Don't butt at the storm with your puny form, 
   But bend and let it go o'er you.

The world will never adjust itself 
   To suit your whims to the letter. 
Some things must go wrong your whole life long, 
   And the sooner you know it the better. 
It is folly to fight with the Infinite, 
   And go under at last in the wrestle; 
The wiser man shapes into God's plan 
   As water shapes into a vessel.