Solstice

The darkest day. That has great meaning to me as my life, like the days of late Autumn, grows shorter with each spin of the planet. Unlike the seasons of the year, a lifetime does not cycle within the same consciousness. It is linear. Yet, in one moment, one hour, one day, consciousness may cycle from mindfulness to blind emotion, to obsession, to distraction and back to mindfulness. Events within a single life may also cycle. We can go from inclusion in family, to loneliness, to relationships, to marriage, to loneliness, to inclusion, and so on. The solstice is a great time for me to examine my own life cycles. I try to block out the distractions of holidays, as marketed by media and corporations to sell things. I try to detach myself from the sentimentality that can so easily cloud vision in these shorter, darker days. I try to measure memory with mindful practice and thereby use memory for my own emotional growth. So, I welcome the cold and the dark. I want to learn to be comfortable in the absence of heat and light. That is part of true liberation.