 Winter sunset from the park. Of all my years living on the West Coast, which is most of my life essentially, I never really noticed how much where the Sun set moves through the seasons. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that actually. Particularly since my condo has a view of the West and I often watch the sunset or notice the setting Sun. But it wasn't until I moved here during pandemic that I really noticed. And it was because of the beach. At the beach watching the Sun as it makes its late day journey down, I would often go to capture the beauty of that light, the beauty of that moment and also just to be there in that time of quietude. It’s often when in peak summer the geese are there. It's when people start to pack up and go home, not that there was ever lots of people at the beach. And now that the parameters of both pandemic and my own physical limitation with a broken foot have even more narrowed my ability to go very far, where the Sun sets now is still accessible to me in a way that it would not have been in the middle of the summer with the same condition, the same constraint. In the summertime often where the Sun really started to slide behind the visible horizon was quite a bit more North, often behind that curve of the bay where White Rock is. And then later just past that point looking off towards Point Roberts area, still North but a little bit more West.  Late spring looking North as the sun sets over White Rock. And now, standing on the edge of the park overlooking the water it is really straight ahead, straight out to the open ocean. Of course not open, in the distance there are always islands. But whether we can see them Is always a question. But there is a broad expanse of water at that point before we hit land again. And the Sun seems to hover just above the water .... In the late afternoon, really in the hour before the Sun is really considered to be setting, the Sun is still slightly to the South .... sometimes looking like it's going to come down just over Blaine, Washington Marina. But then it doesn't quite, in this moment. I’m noticing that I can tell that the days have lengthened just a little bit again. Instead of setting at shortly after 4, the Sun is starting to hang around until closer to 5 again. Peak summer it set at often beyond 9:30 in the evening which is of course why it was that much more North by the time it was that low in the sky.  Summer sunset with geese. Once again this time has been a bit of a gift, giving me this opportunity to notice .... And my constriction, too, has given me an opportunity to still find places that I can access to receive those moments of beauty. To find them in the hour even before we would traditionally think we would find them. To see the light in this way .... The Sun in so many ways that we don't consider, keeps us alive ....Providing heat for the Earth. Creating the conditions for photosynthesis. Nourishing the plants that we eat. And becoming the fuel for the oxygen that the plants offer back to us. And how little I paid attention .... I know more now why people looked to the Sun as a representation of the Divine, the Life Giving. And observing the sunset with the sure knowledge that in the morning it would rise again continuing to gift us with its Life Giving. Blessed be ....
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 And so we come to a new beginning, one as mundane or significant as we choose to notice. One of many daily, moment by moment new beginnings .... I wonder where this road goes. If we kept following it straight, even across borders and through waters, those artificial and very real delineators of spaces and countries, what would happen if we could just walk through. Where would we end up if no one was saying to us this is the end, this is the border, this is mine and that's yours. Don't cross without permission .... I'm watching the birds fly back-and-forth giving entirely no regard to these artificial boundaries. Maybe as a new beginning I will look at my own artificial boundaries and, like a bird, just fly through them.  As we come to the centre of the labyrinth, it's time to take stock and prepare for the journey back out.  When we slipped into the time of pandemic, it was as if we stepped into a large labyrinth, a winding, maze-like rhythm of switchbacks and wondering whether we were going to get to the centre of it but then being switched to some other direction, in-and-out of that space. Labyrinths often feel like a maze but they are not mazes. They are elaborate singular paths that take us to the centre; that allow us to walk in reflection holding a question or a wondering or just noticing what we notice as we walk. And now we are about to step in the centre. We are about to reach the heart of the labyrinth where all of our noticings, all of the things that have been revealed as we posed our questions, come to a point where we can hold them and see them. Maybe raising new questions and maybe things that we want to synthesize as we walk back the other direction .... What is .... What is .... ? What is important? is a question that I think emerged as I walked the labyrinth. What is important? .... One of the answers that I hold as I step into the centre is to walk in beauty. And as I prepare to walk out of the centre I will wonder how do I, in this manifestation of both me and the Divine, in the unique way that I can hold it for the good of all creation, How do I walk in beauty? Another question. What can I let go of? What things did it begin to feel like were so heavy or just unnecessary as I walked this journey in the labyrinth? Were there things that suddenly it just seemed like I was carrying them simply because at some point I had picked them up and they have been important, but maybe they're not important right now? What are those things ‘cause it feels like there were many. And as I step into the centre I will have an opportunity to really examine all of those things that have emerged. Some that I had put down maybe thinking those are temporary resting points. And maybe there are few things that I will pick back up, but maybe some things will just leave as they lie at this point. And maybe there were a few things that made it to the centre and as I look at them I realize I brought them here because I want to honour them, because I have valued them, perhaps I've learned from them, but I don't need to continue to carry the weight or the bulk or the discomfort of those things. And I can leave those aspects in the centre, trusting that the energy of them will simply absorb back into the Infinite Divine, carrying with it my gratitude. And I carry with it my learning ....  Labyrinths are a powerful spiritual practice. And I feel as if we were all drawn into this practice in 2020. And as we prepare to step from Christmas, from this birth of Hope and Love and Light of this new year into a calendar New Year .... That we have an opportunity to synthesize and to carry out with us only those things that are important. It's like going through the new doorway with a fresh start. Kicking off the dust of our shoes, or our feet, as we leave one town behind to go to the next. It's a moment of opportunity. And the thing about a labyrinth is that it takes as long to walk out of one as it did to walk in. And it is as windy on the way out as it was in. And so it will feel like we're stepping through to the other side many times before we actually do. And yet there is a singular path that takes us inextricably out to the other side. And we are at that turn ....
I am at that turn. And as I prepare to step into the centre of the labyrinth I am filled with Hope and Peace and Joy and Love ....and Light and Wondering. And I will reflect on that as I prepare for the journey back through. Blessed be .... A rich spiritual practice and reflective journey, walking a labyrinth can help shift and synthesize energy and questions. Join Kimiko on a guided meditation Labyrinth Journey. ~ Join my Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pacific. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop me a note by e-mail. How the Grinch, a virus, a star, and an environmental movement change us  I've been thinking about the Grinch and the lessons that we learn when he stole all the packages, the food for feasting, all the glitter of Christmas. And I've been thinking about that in the context of this moment of the Corona virus because in many ways, as we reflect back on this past 9 months, the Corona virus has felt a bit like the Grinch as we watched the Grinch removing all of the things that we think of as being essential to Christmas, essential to, I guess, a good celebration. Um, and then being left with the truth of things, which is that those are not the essential element of Christmas. The Corona virus, too, has been stripping things away. Stripping away nonessential shopping and travel. Forcing us, or inviting us, into a time of quietude and reflection, of, in some ways back to basics. People were baking bread. I've observed families gathering in the park together, rather than in malls or in separate groups of specific ages, but all ages gathering together in the park. Stripping us back to what is essential, to our families and communities and looking out for each other. And being gifted with fresh air, skies that are clear, views of mountains that have not been seen for decades. Songbirds singing. Waters clearing. It doesn't take away the truth of the hardship of this moment. But it is in hardship that we step into our moments of a truth, really. In the same way that both the Whovillians ....Whovillites?.... the people from Whoville did, and the Grinch did, when the excesses of Christmas were stripped away. Now, of course, at the end of the Grinch everything was returned, with a shift. And we're not gonna see that for this Christmas, for ourselves. But what remains is the essence of Christmas. And I was thinking of that too in the context of the Christmas Star. The Christmas Star is the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn that happens once, not in decades, not even in generations, but in centuries, many centuries. That we can visibly see this alignment from here on Earth. At least you can if you don't live here on the west coast of BC where it's mostly been cloudy. But the alignment is there, that is the point. The Christmas Star calling us to the Prince of Peace, the Light of Christ, the Love birthed into the world. When we are in alignment for the world, and hold that for the healing of the world, and of our communities, of our families and of ourselves, then Love shines in the world. And I'm thinking of it in terms of alignment because the Corona virus calls us into alignment. As does the Christmas star. And when we are in alignment for the world, and hold that for the healing of the world, and of our communities, of our families and of ourselves, then Love shines in the world .... .... It's such a beautiful reminder. And I was also thinking about, O what is it now? a year, just over a year ago, when thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people around the world gathered to say “Enough! We have to do something or our Earth cannot survive.” And I believe that when we put that honest energy out into the World that the Universe listens. And even though, for the most part, we all then got back into our cars and went back to our jobs and went, you know, back to the ball, the universe heard us, and the universe provided us with the opportunity to do the very thing that politicians, and even ourselves really, never believed we really could do. Because it would cause too much pain, too much inconvenience. It wasn't even the pain people were concerned about. It's just, you know, we want what we want and we do our things. But with the Corona virus we couldn't do that. Or we chose not to. We chose, all of us, sure with a lot of, uh, encouragement from our leaders who were suddenly spurred into action, to stay home when we could stay home, to only go out for essential things. And it has been hard, absolutely. And yet we have seen that we can, by doing that, change the world. I watched communities reach out and say “Oh, I know we've been saying for decades we can't really help the poor, we can't really support people.” And yet we have done that. We have done that on a grassroots level and we have done that on a government level. We have learned to bake bread. We have learned to speak to each other. We have used our technology for connection, for the ways it was intended, to do good, to help us stay connected. All of this, this alignment, this universal response to our own deep desire that this Earth be well, that we be well. And we can continue to respond to that. And this moment of Christmas calls us to continue to respond to that, to birth Love through our own selves into the World. To be the Light of the World. To Walk in Beauty.  Four years ago, at the beginning of November, it was clear that Paul was entering a different stage. He was in a lot of pain and it was during that time when we were trying to keep his pain managed that he went into palliative care. Initially we thought just for a short time, maybe the weekend or a little bit more than that, but then he would be coming home. And of course he never did come home. He did move from palliative care. He went from there to hospice. So four years ago our world became much smaller and much more focused. It was held within a small room where people would come and visit, while we watched Paul's final journey take its course. And somehow this morning it occurred to me that I broke my foot on the anniversary of that happening. And already in this time of drawing in and focussing, with the global pandemic, suddenly I had to draw in even further, and once again become much more present to this one place, to these particular four walls and to the one person who lives within them, besides myself, which is Paul's father, Bill. In the same way that when we were in hospice I relied on people to bring things, to bring food, to bring connection. And we reached out to let people know, to stay in touch. We had a project we were working on which helped focus our attention as well. And now, once again, I'm reliving having to ask for help. Ask people to bring food. Having someone else do the laundry and some of the housework. In the same way that four years ago my parents would pick up my laundry from the hospice and bring food. It was a time of focus. And it was a blessed time of focus. It really was. It was a time where we put our attention on Paul, on his music, his legacy .... And his comfort. And accompanied him, as much as you can accompany someone. Christmas will be .... And again there's a parallel to this moment. I can accompany Bill so far in his journey in dementia but you can walk along with someone, to some degree, but you can never experience exactly what they're experiencing. Particularly when they're on these kinds of journeys, because in many ways they've shifted to a different realm that we can't shift to at this point. They’re enough in the world that we can continue to see them and to interact and to walk beside, but their path is actually on a slightly different realm. And this time of having a broken foot, really in some ways puts me back in that moment, encourages me to focus in to this place. When I was starting to reach beyond him a little bit, to recognize that Bill needs more focussed support, more consistently. I cock my ears differently now, listening, as I used to do with Paul to just have at least a pulse on his breathing. Christmas 2016 was surely a different Christmas. And lots of people are talking about how this Christmas is so different and the loss and lament about what it often is, and isn't. And for me it's, it's just a Christmas that of course is different but I've walked through a different Christmas before. And there was a lot a loss in that Christmas. But there was also connection. I remember, you know, just taking the step of asking my niece if she would bring turkey from the dinner that she was going to be having with her then boyfriend's family. And they gladly shared a turkey dinner with us. What a Blessing. And Finn and I ate that dinner sitting beside Paul. We were watching The Princess Bride. Paul was mostly snoozing and of course he couldn't eat. But it is a memory that I hold on to. Not the happiest memory, perhaps, but certainly a cherished one. Because we were together and really that's what mattered in that moment. And this Christmas we will be together with Finn. He’s going to come and be here with us, with Bill and I. And the three of us will share our turkey dinner. And my parents will come and pick up some dinner and take it home to eat at their house. And Christmas will be .... So this convergence of pandemic and broken foot has brought me to this moment, a moment of drawing even further in to the beauty of what is right in front of me. The things that matter. The love that still exists. The ways we reach out to each other. And a call to see the Blessing that is. The Blessing that truly and surely is .... .... Clock ornament image by Finn Leahy. ~
Join my Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pacific. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop me a note by e-mail. |
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