the most important work

This is a special time of the year: Earth just completed one of its cycles and started a new one 0n December 22nd – now the light is growing on us. Also we are ending one calendar year and stepping into a new one and although the changing numbers don’t mean much, the symbolism of an ending and a beginning is very powerful for our lives. Life is a constant cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Although I don’t live in the nature at the moment, still my attention goes to these natural cycles and I feel the need to align myself with the Earth. More and more she is touching me.

This morning I opened myself to a new experience. With the solstice I offered to give up an old pattern in an important relationship, my claims over the one I love, my insistence on protecting and “saving” her, an old belief that I need to “save” this person in order to be loved. By trusting she is able to take care herself and releasing her means releasing myself from a role of constantly trying to save, protect, love, nurture another person; hence releases all the life energy I was pouring “outwards” which can now be redirected to nurture myself. Slowly I turn my awareness, my attention, my love towards myself. This shift will allow me and beloved to step into our individuality fully without knocking each other off balance. All the energy that was directed at the wrong destination is now available for self-healing, creativity, serving life, loving and nurturing myself. I wonder how many of us seek the healing, the meaning out there, pouring so much time, energy, resources to get to that place of wholeness: it is either a relationship, a career or power, power and more power that we think will bring us a sense of wholeness, a deep self-acceptance, self-love. Even saving the Earth won’t save us; the Earth can save herself, we need to save ourselves, save our souls, restore our wholeness.
Here is my offering for all of us:
Let us hold ourselves with tenderness
Let us tend our wounds, get to know the intricate layers and motifs of ourselves
Let us embrace the mystery we are
Let us reorient our seeing and seeking beauty and love on to ourselves

Being a woman, I hear the calling of what I call “women’s work”. And women’s work is not only about women; this involves both women and men. A long time ago most of humanity lost its wholeness and alienated itself from the rest of the web of life. The disconnection from the Mother Earth, our sustainer, we distanced ourselves from the feminine life force that senses, nourishes, sustains. We have created a world of doing, acting, growth, destruction and logic and forgot to sense, listen, stop, rest, nurture, be. We have abandoned the soil, the rivers, the fields, the trees and our humble, sensible live styles and we got into a frenzy of building bigger, bigger and bigger…numb we became in traffic, in concrete spaces, among books, computers, newspapers, wars, invasions, loud music, petitions, competitions. We became giant brains with constant consumption impulses. Our actions became disconnected from our roots, senses, care and love. We forgot to listen ourselves, tend ourselves, love ourselves.

This pattern was equally projected among the genders and although both genders embody feminine and masculine nature, women who predominantly hold this energy were persecuted severely. We all suffer from that because if a part of the whole is at dis-ease, the whole would suffer from it as well, at least eventually. Being a woman, I feel compassion for all women, generations and generations of women who suffered the imbalance and disconnection. I feel the curse of self-ignorance and oppression passing from generation to generation. We need to STOP finally. I want to stop it in my own family, I want to be the STOP sign which is bold bright blood red.

We need to constantly work with our awareness, seeing and remembering. We need to continue the work of loving ourselves with diligence every day, every moment. Come rain and shine. This is our most important work, men and women, to reactivate the love in our hearts for ourselves, for one another, for the Earth.

So I ask myself, how do I celebrate myself today and each day?
Being and doing in a way that is aligned with spirit, in a way that multiplies life, in a way that feeds and nourishes my body, mind and soul; acknowledging and having gratitude for who I am in my wholeness.

Don’t linger, don’t hesitate any more as this is the most important work we each have. Everything else in your life would unfold accordingly.