Make yourself as warm and comfortable as you can for this moment of stillness together.
There is nothing for you to do here through this meditation but to be.
Take a moment to get comfortable,
Coming into a place of rest and stillness within.
You're welcome to close your eyes gently if that feels comfortable for you.
Listen to the environment around you.
What do you hear?
Seek out the still points between the noise,
The pause in between the action.
Finding the silence in between the noise.
Listen.
Listen to your breath as you inhale and fill your lungs with air and exhale as you release an empty.
And find that moment of pause at the end of your exhale.
That moment of stillness at the bottom of your breath,
At the depth of your emptiness before it turns back into an inhale.
And the new life fills you back up.
Going deeper within,
Noticing within your body where the points of stillness are.
The pause in between the movement of your breath.
Those points of stillness within your body.
The darkness within.
The parts of your body that have never seen the light,
That dwell in the physical darkness,
Yet they keep you alive and warm from within.
Sitting in stillness during the longest night,
The deepest and darkest point of the cycle,
Before being quick to focus on the coming light.
We are so easy to dismiss the beauty of the darkness in favor of the light,
But here on this long night of the winter solstice,
We will be with the beauty and wisdom of the dark,
The silence,
The stillness,
Without an urgency to move through into the light.
Take the pressure off to do anything other than be here.
Take the pressure off to be anything but you here.
Surrender into these moments of stillness.
Let the darkness wrap around you like a warm,
Cozy blanket and take you within to the depths of your being.
This blanket of winter is your safe haven tonight,
Ready to cover and hold you,
Bare and naked,
Nothing to prove.
You are held here in the sacred container of the cosmos above,
Nature surrounding,
And the earth below.
All that were formed out of the darkness,
Just like you were formed in the darkness of the womb.
This darkness asks nothing of you,
No need to prove anything,
Just be.
Rest.
You are held,
You are loved.
Let these affirmations wash over you here as you are held in this state of presence.
In the silence,
I hear my true voice.
In the stillness,
I surrender to presence.
In the darkness,
I find my light.
In the silence,
I hear my true voice.
In the stillness,
I surrender to presence.
In the darkness,
I find my light.
Soften your inner landscape,
The earth beneath you offers its still solid support.
Discover the warmth that is within where you can hibernate during these colder days and nights.
Where is your inner fire that will keep you warm?
It is in these still moments where we can tend to this inner fire,
This flame of spirit.
And let this fire warm the ground of the earth where you will plant your seeds to sow.
What are the seeds that you want to sow here?
All is born out of darkness.
New life comes from the incubation in this darkness.
Taking this moment of stillness is the fertile ground that is needed to journey back to the rebirth.
Nature comes to a stillness to sleep and rest,
Gathering the energy to turn back to life for the spring.
Sometimes each day coming forth,
The light will gradually grow stronger and stronger,
Nourishing your seeds to be reborn in the spring.
Open your body,
Feeling the warmth of the light slowly filling you back up,
Starting at your toes,
Moving up your legs into the core of your being.
Feel the warmth and the light as it spreads through your heart space,
Out through your arms and up into your head.
Holding on to this sense of presence you have felt here in the darkness.
As the earth gradually brings their light back more and more each day,
Moving from this point,
Carrying that with you as you move into the light and sharing your gratitude for the beauty and the wisdom of the darkness,
For the ability to just be and rest at this point of stillness.
The simplicity of having nothing to prove,
Nothing to do other than be,
Nothing to be other than your true self.
And as you awaken after the longest night of the cycle,
Knowing that each day the nights will grow shorter and the day will grow longer,
Carrying with you this beauty and wisdom that you have received of the darkness,
Of honoring this point of stillness.
And as you carry that to nourish the seeds you are sowing to grow into the light and be reborn again.
