Welcome to this week’s Sunday Peace Talk. It is December 17th, 2023, just before the upcoming Capricorn Solstice on the 21st. Did you know we have a Full Moon on Christmas Day and Kwanza / Boxing Day? I’ll put out another Sunday Peace Talk next week, on Christmas Eve.
Please subscribe to hear the audio recording of this post.
Making Peace with Darkness
Today’s talk is about grief, love, and creating sacred peace through being in mindful relationship with what is unknown and unseen.
We are in a time of deepening into the dark here in the northern hemisphere of Earth. I think of the bear in hibernation, burrowing. I think of dark days and moonlit nights. I think of sleep, hot tea, and reaching out to loved ones to stay connected and share love and kindness.
For those of you choosing to let the Spirit of Nature guide you, I offer a gentle nudge to let your body feel what is naturally happening as the darkness brings us into a slower pace. It is a time of simplicity.
Focus on the present to find out what is here to receive, in moments of stillness. Be open to what the darkness has to show you. You may find it is a valuable gift.
It can be a time when grief energy is most felt. We may want to numb it or run from it. We may want to put on a ‘happy’ face. But maybe if we give it its due space, it can get us deeper in touch with the mystery of life. It could be a way to have a more sacred experience this time of year.
Grieving doesn’t have to be the whole picture. But if you can rest with, be next to it, you may find that you feel less stressed and more at ease. You may find that you can allow it to be there and that it doesn’t necessarily get in the way of also feeling joy and peace.
This time of year brings waves of grief through me. It was at this time of year in 2020 that a dear friend of mine chose suicide. Several other loved ones have left this physical realm, or were dying in Decembers of past years. This seems to be a common time for the end of this life for many.
It is not my intention to make you sad by sharing this with you. It is my intention to help us hold space together for the emotions we perceive as ‘heavy.’ They need not be so heavy, so long as we use our breath consciously, and create sacred space for them. They need not take you down. They can be used as ways of making life richer, more real.
Sacred space can be anything that feels meaningful to you. It could simply be time alone with no distractions. Yesterday, I took a long walk and touched many Trees, the River, and Rocks. I spoke with the trees, animals, and water. I sang. I danced. I sat and listened.
All the while, I let myself feel what was arising within me, without judgement. I let the anger be acknowledged too. My time meandering through the day was sacred space for me, to cry, to laugh in disbelief, to reconcile.
Nature seems to be the most sacred space to me for processing emotions. It is where the emotional energy can move and I can most easily embrace my inner shadows with love.
When we find ease with the shadow or darkness, life becomes less of a struggle. We no longer need to fight against it or pretend. We no longer need to solve it, fix it, or mend it. We simply live, and know that death is not the absence of love. It is only part of it.
We may even take some time this week to celebrate the ways we are dying to ourselves. This is about de-cluttering our minds, our personalities, our lists, our blames, our wants. We get to release old identities we no longer live in any more.
By getting in touch with the emotions we keep in the dark, we celebrate our wholeness. The totality of who we are is made up mostly of the unknown. Whatever we thought we wanted life to look like, we could never have known what would actually happen.
Whatever we thought we would become, there was more to the tale than we could see.
The Unknown Self within us is always there. It is connected with the Great Beyond, the Great Unknown, what we perceive as darkness. The more we let ourselves to lean into this darkness, the closer we get to our Soul self, the part who can carry us through, if we but trust it.
The more we lean in, the less it’s about nothingness and fear, and the more it becomes about infinite peace and appreciation of what is here, now. For it is all here, it is all now. If we but slow down and open our hearts, we can feel both the darkness and the light. We can see the beautiful pure light of love held inside grief and loss.
Then we can simply rest, like the beautiful white bear in the picture above. We can let our hearts rest. We can rest in peace, while still alive in these human bodies.
Lots of love to you this holiday season,
Rachel
PS. If you become a paid subscriber for $5.55, you can listen to the audio version of the Sunday Peace Talks.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Sacred Flame to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.