To Measure

The new year is well underway and you may have noticed that it is an intense time in your life. It is a time where people are working through a lot of their past issues. Even the past few weeks seem to be strongly pushing us with a specific piece of the puzzle – we were likely to be looking at practical structural issues in our relationships and asking ourselves “Can I get what I need?” This is a theme I will be getting back to in my blog and in my next book.

I have always felt that the celebration of passages like the New Year can serve us to mark or measure how we feel in our life. Our birthday can be an even more powerful day for this because it more directly includes our age and our feelings about it, and our station in life. The Winter Solstice may be the most precise time to mark the shift from one year to the next.

We can honor these passages in a healthy and balance way, or we can let our inner critic beat us up for what we feel is lacking. A healthy and balanced approach can include our reflecting on, and evaluating where we are in our lives, without as much input from toxic inner critic. We can commit to desired directions and goals in a way that includes self-empathy and compassion.

This year, the Solstice was an even more powerful passage because it marked the end of the Mayan Calendar. It was a logical pausing point for the Mayans as they mapped out their future calendars because this truly is a time where many astrological cycles were coming to an end and others are beginning. We are in the midst of a two-and-a-half-year crescendo of dramatic proportions. The notion that this is an intense period of time is not a New Age cliché. This means strong feelings, more change and more loss for many of us. This is a good time to remember you are not alone in this – don’t let your inner critic make you wrong for your past or your present.

As we move forward on our transformative journey, I think it is helpful to remember that we have always been moving and changing and we also do not ever loose anything. Every day is a passage, an edge between the past and the future. Every breath is a receiving and a letting go. To this end, I share with you this poem I wrote on the island of Molokai where I celebrated this winter Solstice this past 12/21/12.

To Measure

At the edge
Or the beginning
We always sit
Or stand
Run
Or walk

At the end of something
The beginning of another
Watching
Poised to measure
Or critique our view

Still we can become
Not on edge
But grateful for what we hold
And trusting each direction
As one

Whether walking or swimming
We do not reach the edge
Of a round mother
Who rolls to catch us
Before and during each morning, noon and night

Not a treadmill
Not a wheel
A home with edges
And views that reflect our heart
And reveal our soul

Our sight carries us forward
Bringing us to today’s home
The home we ride beneath our feet
Fueled by our heart
And inspired by our view

The sight of your light
Bursting and rolling toward me
The waves carrying me back
And forward
To this moment on home

On edge
Or in a middle
We end and begin
Together
We end and begin together

Thank-you,
Peter