Tuesday, November 18, 2014
I have walked up and down Riverside Drive, and through the village ofHaliburton hundreds of times in my life in this village. It is a beautiful town all year round. As we approach the end of the year and the days keep getting shorter I still love to walk because now people have carefully placed Christmas lights to brighten up their homes, their businesses and
the local park. The homes and the streets shine in a different way at this time of year. Not only are the outsides beautiful, but often I can see
light shining from the inside out. We all take such care to make our homes inviting, festive and cozy at this time of year. We take the time to dig
through the closets and the basements and the attics, and under the bed to find all the special decorations (even the frog that sings Jingle Bells that
drives me crazy every Christmas). We make the time to intentionally brighten up our homes in our unique way. For some it is big and fancy,
others a simple plant or display of Christmas cards.
The interesting thing about this time of year (which is often challenging for those of us who like the longer days and being able to sit outside at 8:00 at night) is that we need the shorter days and the darkness to see the beauty of the inner and outer lights on our houses and businesses. We need the dark as much as we need the light. It invites different possibilities
and opportunities into our lives. The longer evenings invite us to slow down and focus inward for a period of time.
The yogi's think of their bodies as their homes and use all kinds of images and language to encourage people to treat their "inner universe" with
complete love and respect. We need to give our bodies the same kind of attention and dedication that we give to our families, work, community life
and hobbies. We each have to create balance in our way to stay healthy.
Yoga is a practice where we regularly turn inward (into every corner of our bodies) so that we can find and cultivate our own inner light and then it
shine out brightly into the world. When we shine brightly we can be a force for goodness in the world! At my very first yoga teacher training an
instructor encouraged us to be as bright and beautiful as the evening stars and moon. Recently another teacher encouraged me to visualize my spine like
a strand of lights lighting up the back of my body. These are beautiful visualizations to hold for ourselves. Even though it is very dark on the outside, it bright and shining on the inside. Every time I look at a
beautiful set of Christmas lights or a the bright evening moon I am reminded of this process. It is magical. Enjoy all the beautiful light inside and
outside this season.
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