Although summer is my favourite season with those endless sunny days, there is something profoundly moving about winter and the magic that comes with winter’s solstice. It’s funny that I should say moving, since winter solstice actually means, “sun stand still.” It is a time of quiet reflection. It’s a space where we can slow down, take deep breaths and transform in the peace of the season.
Speaking of transforming, I turned 62 in November. I don’t advertise that number because I live in an ageist society. If we revered our wise elders, I would be shouting my advancement towards Universal insight from the rooftops, however, since that is not the case, I remain silent. Our three youngest children, born late in my life, when I was 49 and 51 have often told me of instances where their friends are curious about my age, probably because I look more like their grandparents than their parents. My kids are totally on to them and know society makes judgment calls regarding age, so when the mom age question comes up, they smoothly reply, “She’s ageless!”
I’ve got them well trained!
And even though I don’t focus on my age, I did give myself a birthday present this year. It was a gift of an experience. The minimalist in me loves those the best and what was even better was this gift was a month-long course being run by my oldest daughter, Alyssa. She is a spiritual coach and medium. Like my age, my daughter’s profession is not something I share with many. If I run into someone who used to know Alyssa growing up and they ask me what she’s up to now, I reply, “She’s teaching.” This is not a lie. She went to University, obtained her BA and her B Ed, trained and worked as a teacher for a number of years in the U.K. and here in Canada, all in the traditional school setting we know. What I don’t tell them is that she is teaching people how to connect with their spirit team and she now guides people towards their soul’s purpose. If I told them what she was really doing they would think she was kooky and I was off my rocker for taking one of her workshops.
And so I remain silent.
This is a sad thing because her course, which was called, “Foundations of Mediumship and Channeling Spirit,” was the most profound life experience I’ve had in a long time and I’d like to tell others all about it. She set up the course in the inquiry based learning method that she was trained for in University, where she guides her students, using prompted course material and then encourages them to follow their interests and get engaged. When you are delving into sensing energy and connecting with spirit there is a lot of practising and stepping out of one’s comfort zones. Especially when you get thrown into a group Zoom energy meeting. This scared the pants off me the first time I started practising reading with spirit guiding me but I also found it invigorating. It was a bit like riding a bike that had been leaning against the wall for twenty years, and suddenly I found my balance with ease and was flying downhill gleefully.
During meditation, almost every day, I’d ask the big question from my spirit team, “what’s the message today?” My heart chakra would glow a gem like green and the first message I would invariably receive was, “you are so loved.” Now that might not seem like a profound message but it shifted my world this month. I mean, who doesn’t feel good when their angels, spirit guides, and ascended masters appear and tell them that they are loved! I even had my mom and dad come forward one day, which was a lovely reunion. They were smiling, clapping and generally cheering me on and before they stepped back, they reminded me that I am loved.
The course ended officially this morning. In the afternoon I was sitting on our window seat in the kitchen, a steaming cup of peppermint tea warmed my hands and our Siamese cat Yuuki was curled up next to me, snoozing peacefully without a care in the world, as cats tend to do. I was dreamily looking out the kitchen window. The lake below our house was a stormy blue and the rolling waves were capped a frothy white. Although warm weather is predicted tomorrow, the mountains surrounding our valley stand ready, preparing them themselves for the pending arrival of snow. Fall is quickly moving through the door and winter will soon be our new guest.
I took a deep breath in and for a moment everything was still, quiet and peaceful. At a time when much of the world is going to sleep, I’m wide awake. I feel like a crystal snowflake, perfect and uniquely brilliant and now connected to so many other shining lights in the world. As we get closer and closer to the winter solstice and the days grow shorter, I’ve been thinking about the day when the sun stands still. In celebration I think I’ll light a candle and go outside and say,
“I’m ageless and I’m loved.”
I can remain silent no longer.
If you too are wide awake and wanting to join a community of light filled people, check out Alyssa’s web site below and sign up to be on her mailing list for an upcoming course or ask her for a one on one meeting. She has an active FB group called, “The Inn of Story Nights,” and she is the Innkeeper. I hope on the shortest day of the year you open the door and join us for a hearth fire gathering. There is magic and community there.
The link to her website is http://www.innkeeperarr.com/
Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope/aka….Lee