We are coming up on the Winter Solstice which will soon be followed by the New Year. These are collective times of change around which people often create ceremony from simple celebration to rituals for releasing what no longer serves and welcoming the new.
One of the things I learned is that trees and shrubs are best planted in the fall before the ground freezes so the plant has the whole winter to have its roots develop and grow deep before the spring growing season starts. A well rooted plant grows more quickly and abundantly.
So what does that horticultural tidbit have to do with Solstice and New Year?
Before we go to the burning or the burying, the casting onto the waters or into the air, that which we want to leave behind and that which we wish to welcome let us first anchor deeply, feel the depth of our roots.
All too often there can be the impulse coming out of anger, fear or shame to sever from those roots.
But our roots are deep and rich going far beyond our comprehension of time and space.
As we welcome the light and the dawning of a new year let us do so from the place of feeling the love and strength, honoring the joys and sorrows, recognizing the richness of life that flows into us, anchors us and nourishes us from the many generations of life that came before.