Winter Solstice 2008

Winter Solstice 2008

Affirmation: I reflect deeply to find the progress I make each year.

In just a few days we will experience the Winter Solstice. For many on the spiritual path this event marks the end of our spiritual year. If this is true for you, it is an ideal time to reflect deeply on our accomplishments over the past four seasons.

This incidence of reflection is different than the gratitude list we often write up around the holiday of Thanksgiving. Typically at Thanksgiving we focus on those things for which we are grateful, the blessings we have received and so forth. At the Winter Solstice, I suggest we look more deeply, into how we are co creating our life and living out our lifetime dreams. Here is one way I have found useful.

Each January I set some intentions or objectives for my year. These types of intentions are not like goals that are necessarily measurable; they tend to be more intangible personal transformational objectives. Since they are not goals, I find that they do not register at Thanksgiving.

One January for example, I sought to be more conscious about my eating. I had some personal limits about what this meant to me, such as not being about dieting or restrictive eating and so forth. I did not know how this would manifest, but I want to make it clear there was no goal of weight loss or set amount of exercise I was supposed to do.

As it turned out, only a few weeks later a friend of mine invited me out of the clear blue to attend a workshop on healthy lifestyles with an Olympic class trainer. By “out of the clear blue” I mean he had a couple of extra tickets to the workshop but he did not know about my objective for the year. Ordinarily I would have passed this up, but given my intention to transform my awareness about food I decided to join him. I did this even though it entailed a long drive to hear a presenter I had never heard of and who might be off topic compared to my limited agenda to be more conscious about eating.

As it turned out, looking back at the end of that year at the Winter Solstice, I was very pleased at how that objective had been manifested. I could see progress towards my intention. In fact as I write this, it is now at least 10 years later and I still follow many of the suggestions that were made at the workshop about food, nutrition, eating and so forth.

This Solstice, I’d say that this objective was met on time and abundantly. I can look back today and see that I am making progress on my intention to be more conscious about my eating patterns even though this year has not had any major milestones on this front. But on Thanksgiving itself, I was focused on other things (eating pumpkin pie perhaps) and did not even notice my progress in this arena.

In addition establishing to annual objectives each January, over the years I have set out my lifetime dreams. I like to use the Winter Solstice to notice my progress on manifesting lifetime dreams because the time frame is so much longer that oftentimes I overlook the small tidbits of success. Much of the work for me on manifesting my lifetime dreams is already either built in as a foundation for my day to day life or already in play at some level in my life, so I wonder if perhaps I might take them for granted. Thus, for me, it is a sweet reminder when I am able to be mindful that I am living an intentional life that brings meaning to my heart because I am co creating with my higher power those things that matter to me.

Thus, for example, one of my lifetime dreams is to be a friend, confidant and mentor to each of my children for their entire life. This past year I helped my daughter purchase her first home (a condo really), went to visit her at her condo and while there helped her put in a small patio garden. None of these would necessarily qualify as a blessing to me in the reflections I choose to do around Thanksgiving but I would notice them explicitly at my Winter Solstice year end because they are related to my lifetime dreams coming true.

Just to balance out the picture, I also have a son. This past year, I went skiing with my son, something we have not done since he was a young teenager. In addition, he is going to help me by illustrating a children’s book that I wrote to my kids some 20 years ago. Moreover, he and I have recently made an agreement that I would help him attend college.

I believe I am on track with this vision with both of my children. Going to visit my daughter at her condo and helping plant her garden were not even remotely on my mind at the beginning of the year, nor was illustrating my children’s book, but as they fit my lifetime dream it was easy to say yes in the moment and to find appreciation for the Divine Presence in my life that responded to my dreams.

There are oftentimes that we do not actually meet the goals we set out for ourselves, but none the less, we have made substantial progress on our path. It is important to keep a positive perspective even when our judgment of success has not been met. I have found that sometimes I am too ambitious and if I reflect on the good progress I have made and not my failure to meet my goal, it leaves me in a more empowered state of mind.

So, as we enter into the deepest of nights, lets take a moment and shine our light on how well we have manifest our vision for ourselves this past twelve months.