Greetings my friends
The Winter Solstice is on the 21st of December, when we have the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It is a time of turning when the days begin to lengthen once again. This time of transition is a perfect opportunity to reflect on the year that is ending and then to dream out ahead.
I wondered what would be a gift to you in this busy Festive Season as I thought about you today. It came to me to record a piece of beautiful poetry that you can listen to when you have quiet moments. Over the next four weeks, I will post a recorded piece of poetry to nourish you as you relax, remember, and renew.
The poem I have chosen this week is ‘The Winter of Listening’ by David Whyte. He invites reflection, cautions us against being too insular in our remembering, and encourages us to listen for divine inspiration to guide us forward. Mmmmm.
Here are two questions to touch into your natural optimism.
What do you love about this time of year?
Despite all the challenges you have faced, what do you cherish most about this year that is ending?
As always, I would love to hear from you.
Click here or on the image for this week’s recording. Enjoy!
The Winter of Listening
No one but me by the fire,
my hands burning red in the palms while
the night wind carries everything away outside.
All this petty worry while the great cloak
of the sky grows dark and intense
round every living thing.
****
What is precious inside us does not
care to be known by the mind
in ways that diminish its presence.
What we strive for in perfection
is not what turns us into the lit angel we desire,
what disturbs and then nourishes
has everything we need.
***
What we hate in ourselves
is what we cannot know in ourselves but
what is true to the pattern does not need
to be explained.
Inside everyone is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.
Even with the summer so far off
I feel it grown in me now and ready
to arrive in the world.
***
All those years listening to those
who had nothing to say.
All those years forgetting how everything
has its own voice to make itself heard.
All those years forgetting how easily
you can belong to everything
simply by listening.
***
And the slow difficulty
of remembering how everything
is born from an opposite
and miraculous otherness.
Silence and winter
has led me to that otherness.
So let this winter of listening
be enough for the new life
I must call my own.
***
- David Whyte, from The House of Belonging.
I feel guiltily self indulgent but thought I would share one optimism poem from me I wrote this afternoon reflecting on early morning light. I hope it’s ok. Please have a great week. Richard
The first star
It’s hard to see a deeper place
Than one had ever dreamed
That life could actually be darker
Even than it had seemed
And yet beyond the darkest place
Where life is silent and still
There was a shimmering twinkling sunrise
Through every windowsill
The morning shall be there again
With the dawn chorus that is heard
It lifts nthe universe with every heart
Through every thoughtful caring word
For there is a place beyond the dark
Beyond the depths of all despair
I had never known a deeper place
Than the sunlight shining there
I had never stopped to take the time
To hear melodies when I dreamed
Of all the loveliest things in life
When the early light just gleamed
Richard. Dec 13
Peace to everyone this Christmas
Here is the poem by J Runeberg
Since then I have questioned no further
Why is Spring so fleeting,
why does summer never last
Thus I often used to wonder
and ask many a person in vain.
But since my lover betrayed me
since his warmth turned cold
and his summer changed to winter,
since then I have stopped asking -
just known deep in my being
that beauty soon fades,
that joy never lasts.