Now, shift into neutral and glide

Winter solstice arrives here in Connecticut on Tuesday just before 11:00 a.m. just as the summer solstice arrives in the southern hemisphere at the same locally adjusted time. It is both the longest day of the year and the shortest, simultaneously. Christmas follows four days later and then we turn the calendar to 2022 a week after that. No matter which side of the planet you are on, it is a busy time and many of us plan to celebrate with gifts, food, prayer, ceremony or ritual.

This is also a time for reflection. We look backward. We look forward. So much to contemplate in either direction – all that has happened over these past 12 months; happiness, sorrow, successes, falling short of expectations – and all that may happen in the future; things we hope for, worry over, fear, anticipate with joy and love.

It’s enough to make us crazy. But it doesn’t have to.

I suggest we take a cue from the solstice. Like our breathing in and breathing out, like our orbit around the sun year in and year out, there is a moment – and remember, infinity resides in a moment – there is that moment of hang time before beginning our return. Just the same, there is a moment in our breathing, a moment of hang time, before we return to our inhalation or exhalation. It is a neutral moment, a suspension of either in or out, of either going or coming. It is a moment of stillness. Indeed, the word solstice, derived from two Latin words, sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), reminds us.

So, as you enter this week, these weeks, take your cue from the solstice. Shift into neutral and glide through this time. Let go of worry, let go of expectations. Glide through the ups and downs easily. Find stillness where and when you can. And, because you breathe, you can.

Wishing you peace and love in the week ahead.