The Wheel Turns

The wheel of the year turns, and soon it will be Yule when the days begin to get longer, and the nights shorter. The sun is reborn and soon the earth will follow. We’re usually more than a little busy during the period between Thanksgiving and Yule.

Since people often celebrate both Christmas and Yule, or maybe Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, for any number of reasons, including personal preference, that’s at least double the work than if you only celebrate one. People also often have more than one Yule celebration and one or more Christmas celebration. The gifts and food alone involved in that can be stressful. We have two Yule celebrations and two Christmas, so we’ll be among those super busy this season. It's good to take a little time out when you can, however, to feel the rhythm of the earth as it turns toward the reawakening of life in the spring.

What I like best about this time of year is the sense of anticipation you can feel in the air. This is not just the anticipation of kids for Santa. It’s more than that. Personally, I feel more deeply in tune with the earth and the turning of the wheel. The final harvest is in, we’ve celebrated, and we’ve thanked the gods for the bounty of the year. This spirit of gratitude makes us want to share with others at this time of year more than at other times too, so we share food and give gifts.

All of this is just a lead up to the big event though, solstice. At Yule, the cycle begins anew and the sun returns. One way to prepare for Yule is by doing a fall cleaning and clearing out the things you don’t need, things you don’t need to carry with you into the new dawn as the sun returns to the earth. 

That’s one of my projects for this year. I tend to collect “things,” so I have to go through periodically and clear it out. I recently started on the closest and gave away several bags of clothes. Do you have any of those, “Oh I might wear that again” clothes? I do, or I should say I did.

This type of cleaning out can help you let go of the things that hold you back. See if you can find those self-sabotaging voices, if you have them, and most of us do, and toss them out along with each thing you throw away. I try to do this once a year, and some years there’s less to throw out than others. The less physical clutter you have, the less spiritual clutter you will have.

Once I’ve gotten rid of everything, I feel like I’m making a new start on accomplishing what I want for the year. This is also one of those times when I open up the house, if I can, to bring in positive natural vibes. Trees surround my house, so on a nice winter day, I just let nature sweep the house. I know I’ve mentioned that before, but the days when that’s possible are too few.

How do you celebrate the solstice? Tell us by commenting on the blog, on Facebook, or through our contact page, and let us know what you’re doing for Yule, or Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you celebrate. We’d love to hear from you!

Reflection and Being Thankful

In the spirit of starting the Yule season off on the right foot, I like to reflect on the past year and the things I’m thankful for not only from this past year but also always. Personally, I am most thankful for my family and friends. I hope most people feel that way, but I know that is not always the case. Not everyone has family, or friends who are as close as family, but if you do, don't forget to show them how much you appreciate them. 

I confess that I’m as bad as everyone else, and sometimes it takes the reflection and meditation of the beginning of the year and leading to Yule, and of course, the traditional Thanksgiving holiday, to remind me how blessed I am. However, that’s one of the things that we should all think about more often, not just how thankful we are for our family and friends, although that is huge, but how thankful we are for all the wonderful things in our lives.

I have a wonderful family, and a great group of friends that have been my extended family for over 30 years, some for most of my life. I’m not sure you can really ‘be’ thankful enough for that, simply because, without it, I don’t know how we’d function. In the words of John Lennon, “I get by with a little help from my friends,” and I think that’s true of all of us.

Family is wonderful, sometimes, and having a good relationship with your family is something to always value, but not everyone has that luxury. There are many reasons that we may or may not be close to family, not all of them necessarily bad; they just are, and our relationship with family may change over the years. Personally, I am closer to my family now than I was for many years, and I love them dearly. However, during those years when I wasn’t as close to my family as I am now, I became part of an extended family that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

I wouldn’t begin to know how to thank these people for what they have meant to me through the years, and I can’t imagine spending the past 30 years without them. We have partied together, cried together, been present for childbirth and graduations, anniversaries and holidays. We have bonded over parents who are aging and children who are growing up much too fast. Many of my friends are creative types, musicians, writers, artists, photographers, and chefs, and let me just say my college graduation parties were pretty epic, but that’s beside the point. What isn’t beside the point is that most of us have people like this in our lives, and we should find ways to let them know how much we appreciate them.

Most years I try to show my appreciation for my friends and family by having a Yule celebration dinner at my house each year. I fix dinner and share the feast with all those who have been there and been my family and extended family for all these years. This year, someone else is hosting, but seeing everyone all at one time is always a wonderful time. Other than the fact that we party considerably less now than we did then, nothing has changed.

This might not be possible for everyone, it wasn't for me this year, but I do want to advocate finding some way to say thanks to those who have kept you sane over the years, and we all know we have them. We also know we probably wouldn’t have made it this far without them, if for no other reason than that they’ve given us an outlet for those quirks that we couldn’t share with anyone else.

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."
Jim Morrison

On another note, this time of year, I think it’s also important to make sure to give back to your community as well. It’s so easy to pick up a toy for a kid or a warm coat. Some groups have people who will come get them. We all have rough times and sometimes that one gift can make a huge difference for someone who is not as blessed.