Happy New Year, fellow travelers!!!
A friend shared a poem that spoke to me about this time of year, when we’re confronting the shortest days and darkest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, yet trusting that the light is lengthening once again and a new year means another chance to dream.
This time of year, I try to slow my pace to be more in tune with the season of hibernation and slowed metabolism, the stillness and silence of many of our fellow wild creatures. It's a good time to take stock of the path I've been following, and who's map I'm using to navigate! A good time to dream my own map and the paths I want to be following. I'm not talking about the mandatory resolutions to do this or that better, creating another way to judge myself. I'm talking about the deep dive needed to notice whether I've been living in jail....someone else's limited cement cubicle, and for how long, and how to get myself free!
May we each choose the map we forge inside, instead of the one we were handed by a broken, disconnected society, family, peer-group, traumatic experience, etc.... the map (or programing) that was supposed to keep us small and safe....and definitely domesticated.
May we each reach out for re-connection, reconnecting with our deep selves. Reconnecting with the rest of the natural world we're part of and with other people who will see and value us for who we are. May we each find some other souls to journey with....to grieve and celebrate with along the way. May we each learn to feel at home in our own bodies and minds, even while traveling an unfamiliar path. May we each begin to feel we have arrived and are already home, with each breath!
I've found it helpful in retraining my brain to use Thich Nhat Hanh's teaching, repeated over and over, like saying a rosery or mantra: "I have arrived, I am home, In the here and in the now. I am solid, I am Free, In the ultimate I dwell." or simply "I have arrived, I am home." *
Another helpful teaching from my teacher and Stone Medicine elder Jenny Ray is “Live in this breath!” In other words, live in the present few seconds it takes to breath in and out, instead of in past regrets, guilt or shame or in worry, stress and fear about the future. *
Here’s to traveling 2024 by your own map!
The Map You Make Yourself
by Jan Richardson
You have looked
at so many doors
with longing,
wondering if your life
lay on the other side.
For today,
choose the door
that opens
to the inside.
Travel the most ancient way
of all:
the path that leads you
to the center
of your life.
No map
but the one
you make yourself.
No provision
but what you already carry
and the grace that comes
to those who walk
the pilgrim’s way.
Speak this blessing
as you set out
and watch how
your rhythm slows,
the cadence of the road
drawing you into the pace
that is your own.
Eat when hungry.
Rest when tired.
Listen to your dreaming.
Welcome detours
as doors deeper in.
Pray for protection.
Ask for the guidance you need.
Offer gladness
for the gifts that come
and then
let them go.
Do not expect
to return
by the same road.
Home is always
by another way
and you will know it
not by the light
that waits for you
but by the star
that blazes inside you
telling you
where you are
is holy
and you are welcome
here.
* Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh was a global spiritual leader, poet and peace activist who passed away on January 22, 2022.
* Santee Dakota Medicine Woman Jenny Ray is a member of the Stone Walkers Society and has dedicated her life to preserving and sharing the ancient healing art of Stone Medicine--using different temperatures of stones to bring wellness--around the world.
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