Today- the shortest day of the year heralds the return of light here in the northern hemisphere.

Can you feel  it?

Regardless of where you are, today’s daylight is fleeting and the dark stillness of winter is calling.

Even as we light our candles and Christmas lights to offset the darkness, springtime still feels eons away; yet tomorrow the cosmic wheel turns as winter solstice arrives and with it, the return of our sunlight.

All of nature trusts this process.  Seeds sit still in the darkness with the fertile knowing their day will come to sprout again.  Animals hunker down against the cold, and we humans intuitively know NOW is the time to pull in and wait.

Now is the time to review our past year, to mimic nature and dive deep into our own psyche-our own shadowed darkness- and remember the light inside all of us that never really goes away.

We may dim our light with our own fear, anger, shame, self-doubt and guilt- but our light is right there waiting for us to return our attention to it- just as the cosmic wheel turns once again on Winter Solstice as we march towards the light of spring.

Now is the time to journal and reflect on the past year.  What was wonderful and what memories would you like to keep?  What do you wish to leave behind and what memories can you bury with gratitude and walk away from brushing your hands off as you do?

As we enter the darkness tonight, let’s take a deep inhale with gratitude for the past, and enjoy a long exhale as we let it all go.

Tomorrow we can let our self induced darkness burn away with the return of light as we march towards springtime remembering even in the darkest of times, the wheel begins to turn again.

Happy Winter Solstice.

~for more on nurturing yourself as you enter the dark winter season.  Here