As we move into winter today, it is a turning point. The shortest day of the year brings with the beginning of a season of dormant repose. The earth seems to be asleep, waiting for spring. The days grown longer day by day and the earth stirs in tiny increases, longing for the warmth of spring. Like the cardinal in winter, our spirit stands in stark contrast to the bare world around it.
On this day, a time for reflection can begin. A gradual re-awakened awareness of those hopes and dreams we have all put on a shelf somewhere to gather dust. Time to go inward and revive what may have gone to sleep within us. That is what the winter solstice is about as the world turns its face toward the sun. With all this musing, I am thinking about the things I have put off or neglected. The New Year approaches. Time to resolve to begin again. "It's not too late," I tell myself. "You've made a good start of it this past year." And its true. So let the momentum build and the creativity flow. It about time.
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It is raining which these days is a happening for great rejoicing in Southern California. Four years plus of drought has left us and our state thirsty for every little bit of rain and snow we can get. So we get excited, run to the window or door, throw them open and are amazed. It is almost as if prayers are being answered. Maybe so. Maybe its just a change in the weather. People forget how to drive in the rain. Accident rates seem to go up. We don't know how to react or what to do when it rains. We may even find ourselves standing in the rain looking heavenward, much like turkeys do, endangering ourselves of drowning. Perhaps I exaggerate, but, really, some are much like those turkeys who don't have the sense to come out of the rain...symbolically and metaphorically. Yet the rain, has of late been such a rare occurrence, it truly does get our attention. So I think I'll go out and splash in a puddle or two. I sing in it and I'll thank God for even a brief respite from the constant aridity that has plagued us. It is promise, we hope, that even droughts don't last forever and, to quote the old adage, "This too shall pass." On this day when the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, premieres, it does seem appropriate to "pick up the metaphoric pen" and begin again. It has been over three months. The Star Wars movie series franchise has been dormant for ten years. So I believe three months is not that long a "drought" after all. So, laser sword in hand, I recommence my "epic" journey. The best quote in my estimation from the Star Wars movies is "May the Force be With you." This implies there is something out there we can draw upon for our inspiration and support. Sometimes we forget that. I know I do. My theory is that the Force, (or whatever you want to call it, God, Spirit, Oversoul, etc.) is always out there, waiting for us to open our hearts and our minds to its inspiration. Inspiration is basically the "drawing in of breath to remain alive, and also the process of being mentally to do or feel something, especially to something creative." --Google definition (link below)*. But it does not pay to sit around an wait for this inspiration to show up. Even though inspiration is always available, we have to open ourselves to it. We have to set our intention, our thoughts and sit in a receptive repose to be inspired. It can be work. More likely, though, it will be a state of mind that gets us in the mode again. And so it is. Once more, I awake to the Force and begin again. And verily, I say until you and to myself, "May the Force be you." *https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=definition%20of%20inspiration |
Rob McMurray,
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