Solstice Blessings

Dear Friends,

Sincere thanks to each of you for your presence in the life of Hollow Tree over this past year.  As my little household puts down roots in our new neighbourhood, I am looking back on the last twelve months with amazement and appreciation.  There’s amazement at the abundance of change that has unfolded in such a short span of time and appreciation for all the help, supports, and synchronicities along the way.

Some of you might remember the story I was telling when I returned from Yin Yoga II at Omega this summer – about the group of indigenous people who were travelling by plane and refused to be rushed from the airport to the next destination, saying, “Our spirits need time to catch up to our bodies.”  This story aptly describes my experience this fall.  I expected to hit the ground running and instead found that coming in for a landing has taken its own sweet time.  Now, journeying into the longest nights of the year invites me inward to a stillness that balances the outward busy-ness of the holiday season.  I am thankful for long exhalations, for surrendering into the quiet of darkness, and for the promise of that next light-filled inbreath.

As we celebrate, mark, recognize, and move through the coming weeks each in our own ways, I wish us all fulfilling connections with family, friends, nature, and the profound energy of infinite love and compassion that is ours to share.  I wish us a great capacity for forgiveness, that in the shadow of these long winter nights we may give ourselves the grace to let go and begin anew.  I wish us a benevolent and generous sense of humour, that we may find joy and laughter in the simplicity of the present.  And I wish us the certainty that yoga does indeed begin now, and now, and now, that it is never too late and always just the right time to come home to our hearts.

Namaste,
Susan