thoughts on winter solstice, december 21, 2005

Solstice means standing still sun. The ancients observed that twice a year the setting sun seemed to "stand still" on the horizon for a period of 8 or 10 days before continuing its more familiar movement of setting in a slightly different spot each night. It is the Standing Still Sun or Solstice which tells us where the earth is in its orbit around the Sun.

So, the Winter solstice is a recurring event: a cycle. Cycles are comforting because we know what to expect. Around the 21st of December, we know that the days will begin to get longer until we reach our longest day of the year, around the 21st of June.

When you think about it, we plan much of our lives on familiar cycles, or recurring events.

My morning cycle begins at the very moment I reach consciousness. When I realize that I'm awake, I don't move. I lay deathly still. . .for even a change in my breathing pattern instigates the flapping of ears deep beneath the covers preceding an unsolicited tonsil washing by our red-haired dachshund if I'm not fully awake by the time she roots her way out of the blankets.

So a cycle is a sequence of events that repeats itself in a given period of time. If you think about it, we create routines, planned behaviors out of the cycles in our lives. We sleep at night and animate ourselves during the day. Here in the Northeast, we are heavily influenced by seasonal cycles. . . preparing for winter and allowing for summer.

We become creatures of habit based in part on the familiar cycles influencing our lives. But how many of these habits are aware of? Witness the newborn child whose eating cycles don't yet align with those of the parent's. How soon will it be before the child takes on eating habits that are similiar to his parent's need for schedule, rather than the need for nourishment?

Just ponder for a moment how much of our lives are based on the element of time.

Have you ever stopped to think about it?

Not just the daily cycles of waking, eating, working and sleeping, but seasonal or yearly patterns like celebrating the Holiday season we are now in.

We even exhibit habits based upon what stage of life we are in: childhood, adolescence, young adult, etc. Each stage conforming in large part to social standards: Time to grow up, time to get a job, time to get married and have kids before it's too late! Time to retire, even a time to experience old age.

But, what is time? Is there time "out there" in space?

Can we loosen the grip of time on our lives? I think we do it all the time, but we may not be aware of it.

Have you ever gotten so involved in something that you lost track of time?

It is when we are in this state of consciousness, this state beyond time itself that we are most creative.

Einstein received many important revelations not by forcing his intellect, but by letting go of all thinking as he floated on his back in a pond at Princeton./

Planning our lives strictly on the element of time has its dangers. Actions become automatic according to the time of day, time of year, or stage, in one's life. We forget to ask why we are doing something in the first place.

There is the story of a little girl who asked her mother why she cut the end off of the turkey before putting it in the oven. Her mother's response was, "Because this is how my mother and grandmother did it."

Further inquiry revealed that the grandmother cut the turkey so it would fit in the only roasting pan she had.

Changing behaviors by no longer cutting a turkey to fit in a roasting pan might be easy, but other time-based habits can be more deeply rooted in the unconscious and may take considerable perseverance to overcome.

When the day after Thanksgiving dawns, it's as if a bell rings and shoppers burst out of the gate attempting to fulfill material obligations for the holiday. Feedback in the form of sales and profits are heralded in the six o'clock news reinforcing the ritual with labels like consumer confidence is either up or down.

According to World Watch Institute, a non-profit research organization that does not accept corporate donations, America, with roughly 5% of the earth's population consumes over one third of its resources. What's more, the American Dream is now being dreamt in growing economies like China and India adding billions of shoppers to the "Global Shopping Mall."

Perhaps our unconscious consumption habits have precipitated some warning signals over the past few decades. Statistics compiled by the Global Footprint Network suggest that humanity's collective demands for natural resources first surpassed the earth's ability to regenerate those resources around 1980.

In 1999 global demands exceeded capacity by 20 percent. The gap continues to grow by about 1 percent a year. This means that we are meeting current demands by consuming the earth's assets impeding its ability regenerate at all.

In short, we now know that the earth cannot support either China or India's population at the consumption levels of the United States a.k.a. the American Dream. Put metaphorically, for the past 25 years we have made a habit of eating the seeds needed for the next year's harvest.

Anyone interested in further reading on this subject is encouraged to read Plan B 2.0 by Lester Brown.

The information is daunting to say the least, but Brown explains that we have the know-how and even the technology to turn this situation around.

Solutions will only come from a unified effort on a global scale to first agree on the problem, then work together sharing information and technology for the good of all. It would appear that we have a little work to do on this front.

The initial part of this message can be down-right depressing, but unless you are among the standing dead, you are be aware of the incredible challenges currently facing humanity. Maintaining the status quo, doing what we have always done is no longer an option.

I strongly believe we can bring some balance to a world out of whack, but it won't come about by legislation or control exercised by one group over another. It won't come from one person or institution "discovering" or "inventing" a technology that will save the world.

In short, it won't come by thinking our way out of this situation.

It must come from being the type of people we want the world to have in it. If we want peace, we must be peaceful. Attending peace marches is an empty gesture if we don't have peace in our heart.

Focus on yourself; are you at peace or do you still rush around with more things to do that you have time in a day? Are you consciously friendly to the checkout person? Do you thank them their assistance, or are you talking on a cell phone?

If we want equality then we must be equal. No two people look alike.

I think we sometimes forget that we differ as much on the inside, meaning psychologically and spiritually, as we do in appearance. This is the diversity from which we derive a great strength. We judge someone because they exhibit qualities we don't like. Yet what would the world be like if we all looked and acted alike?

We are more than the bones, blood and guts that make up our body. We are also composed of Spirit. Without the Spiritual component we are nothing but a lifeless corpse. Even the smartest scientist with the most advanced instruments will not find the Spirit in the body, yet we know it exists. It is in Spirit that we are indelibly connected.

It is the Spiritual part of us that whispers intuitive thoughts, innovative ideas or presents us with an A-ha. But, we must slow down in order to hear it. We must quiet the ever-thinking, rational mind if we are to allow our Spiritual side a voice.

When I first heard this advice it seemed to make sense. My problem was one of relativity. For me to slow down from overdrive to drive was a major accomplishment. To date, I'd still get a ticket for mind-speeding, but I'm beginning to see the wisdom in the suggestion.

To really slow down, we must first relax the body. When the body is relaxed do we become more aware. Only in a state of relaxation can we sense the more subtle things in life which have always been there, we're just too encrusted to sense them.

Only with the body completely relaxed can we begin to observe the mind. Perhaps for the first time we become aware of how noisy our mind really is. We begin to see how we have been following patterns of behavior in a state of semi-sleep. Gradually, we begin to see things from a different, greater perspective leaving you with the question, "Did the world change, or did I?" This is the Spiritual part of us working in balance with the physical. We hope that you take the next few moments to allow Spirit a voice.

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