Hummingbird & Hawk

"In the Lakota/Sioux tradition, a person who is grieving is considered most waken, most holy.

There's a sense that when someone is struck by the sudden lightning of loss, he or she stands on the threshold of the spirit world.

The prayers of those who grieve are considered especially strong, and it is proper to ask them for their help.
You might recall what it's like to be with someone who has grieved deeply.

The person has no layer of protection, nothing left to defend.

The mystery is looking out through that person's eyes. For the time being, he or she has accepted the reality of loss and has stopped clinging to the past or grasping at the future.

In the groundless openness of sorrow, there is a wholeness of presence and a deep natural wisdom."

~Tara Brach

Winter solstice celebrates the shortest day and the longest night of the year and has been celebrated for tens of thousands of years to represent safety and the life-force itself. Each year, December 21/22 signals the beginning of winter - but also a return to the light - as each day gets incrementally longer and full of more light. From this day on the light comes back more and more, day by day, almost imperceptibly.

Symbolically winter solstice marks the death - and then the rebirth - of the sun as the steady decline of daylight of the last six months is now reversed as the sun begins its long journey back toward summer.

Lighting candles, making bonfires, or burning Yule logs to symbolize the return of the light marks winter solstice as a glimmer of hope in the dark and a sign of life renewing even though we may not see it.

Something we all need in grief. ❤️