Spirited Woman Blogger Team

Guest Blogger - Joyce Mason - Winter Solstice on December 21: Hug the Dark

Rituals or exercises - or to astrologize - welcomes the holiday season. Just as all of nature shifts in a noticeable way when the seasons change and the Sun enters Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, so it is with our inner growth. The solstices and equinoxes are a time to review our progress in becoming more spirited. They’re reason to celebrate!

In Astrologize! Exercises for the Winter Solstice to Warm Your Heart and Light Your Way Part 1 and Part 2 that I blogged about for Spirited Woman last year, you learned the two core astrologizes I do with my Solsisters every winter. But variety is the spice—make that mulled spice for winter. This year’s astrologizes expand on my article Hug the Dark.

Winter is a period of dormancy. Animals hibernate and all things in nature rest, as should human beings. But most of us think we’re “human doings.” We overdo so much during this time of year; we end up holidazed. It’s essential for our mental, physical and spiritual health to set aside time each winter just to “veg.”

These astrologizes will help you hug the dark starting with Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year.

1. Hug the Dark – For at least 10 minutes on as many winter nights as possible, sit quietly in total darkness. Bring something huggable—a teddy bear, stuffed toy, or a pillow. It’s OK to feel a childlike fear or wariness of the dark. This astrologize helps you adapt to the dark as a place of quiet wonder.  Sit in the silence for the first five minutes. Notice the peace it holds. Next, let the dark hug you back! Embrace your cuddly object, thinking of all the people you love and would like to hug. Imagine hugging them and their hugging

Spirited Women Work The Holiday Spirit All Year Long

As a child nothing but nothing compared to the magic of Christmas Eve. I could hardly stand the excitement of knowing that one incredibly kind human being would come during the night to leave beautiful packages filled with all that my heart desired. Of course I later found out that that incredible human being was my mother but even in my post Santa Claus days Christmas Eve continued to hold much of its sparkle simply because the love, giving and sharing carried on.

The joy of the season seems to start, in the United States at least, around the week of Thanksgiving.  People begin to focus on friends and family a bit more and work takes on a bit less of the priority than it does during the rest of the year. This fabulous frame of mind typically lasts just over a month, as it carries through to the New Year.  Though some may argue that the holiday season has become overly commercialized and that the true meaning has all but faded away, it is we ourselves who can choose how we want to view this very special time of the year. 

Now what do you think would happen if we all began to take that beautiful spirit we feel and pass on during the season, and attempt to spread it out for more than just a month? I know it is a cliché concept but I still have hope that we can all learn to carry the holiday glow in our hearts for a good part of the year. If we simply make a conscious effort it could be possible.

I for one think that Spirited Women are already doing this more than the average person (because we all know Spirited Women are far from average) but it would be magnificent to try to carry that holiday joy in our hearts far more often. So what do you think? Should we start a Spirited Woman campaign to carry on the season's spirit even after the 1st of January? If we all make at least a little effort, who knows what it might do for those around us and even more importantly for ourselves!

May you have a beautiful end to 2009 and a spectacular beginning to 2010 my fellow Spirited Women!

To your Spirited Style,

- Dawn Z Bournand  www.fabulouslysuccessful.com
Click here to read more of Dawn's posts.

A Holiday Less Ordinary

I don’t know about you, but I’m always torn during holidays. There’s part of me that loves tradition – the rituals and foods that I remember from childhood –  the things that make each holiday predictable yet special. Then there’s the spirited, adventurous part of me that just wants to shake things up and try something new, especially when it comes to food. 

If you are like me, then you’re probably wrestling with this right now, in preparation for Easter or Passover.  Do you hold onto tradition or break it? Go for comfort or adventure?  As with many things in life, I think the answer falls somewhere in the middle – balancing tradition while introducing new tastes and ideas to keep things fresh. Here are some simple ideas on how to satisfy that yin and yang:  

Introduce a New Course – If you don’t normally do an appetizer or starter let your creativity loose with  that part of the meal. Soup is a great starter to experiment with, and the April issue of Food & Wine magazine has some fabulous recipes that capture the essence of spring. Check out Creamy Spring Onion Soup or Chilled Avocado Soup topped with Crab. 

Take a Favorite & Re-Invent It – Even simple changes can make a traditional dish have more punch (and let you flex some creative muscle). Gourmet’s April issue features a lot of great examples that I plan to use.  For Easter, Golden potatoes with Caper Brown-Butter Crumbs are a great alternative to mashed or roasted potatoes. And for Passover, how about Cheese Matzo Blintzes with Asparagus and Dill? 

Experiment with Dessert – my family is a little less “precious” about dessert than they are the rest of the meal, so that’s where I can have some creative license.  We normally have pies at every holiday (pumpkin for Thanksgiving, some kind of fruit pie for Easter, etc.) but this year I’m going to break the mold. I’d love  to make either a Lemon Cloud Tart with Rhubarb Compote (figure that gets the fruit in) or a Lemon Curd Mousse Cake – both found on www.bonappetit.com. Or, I may introduce a more exotic flavor and shoot for a Chai-Spiced Cheesecake with Ginger Crust – either way, it will be a departure!

Light Festivals Around the World - Being Quiet and Still & All Lit Up

I remember as a kid how excited I was to set fire to a candle which was neatly stored away for emergency such as a power failure. What was once magical became a nuisance as I got older; all cozy in my comfort zone and a black out no longer fun. Have you had the experience of being quiet and still in the dark; only a lit candle to keep you company? What did it feel like?

Being a winter person, I just love the cold and chill but I won’t survive without a minimum dose of sunlight. Apart from being the source of energy to all living creatures, light is indispensable to our spiritual well-being. Have you ever wondered how many different festivals of light there are around the world? And most of them take place in mid-winter…think…

I have batches of Tealite candles within an arm’s reach as I burn oil throughout the day and they serve as my props for meditation. It is our innate nature to create light in the depths of winter. It is human instinct to make room for light in the darker months. There is the Hindu festival of Diwali, the Jewish Hanukkah, the Chinese New Year (famous for the firework display), Sweden’s St. Lucy Day, Iran’s Sadeh, Thailand’s Loi Krathong at full moon, Korean’s Seollal, and Christmas,  all involving light rituals. We light up our Jack O' Lantern to scare away the creepy crawlies. Tribal men gather around bonfires, singing and dancing to the glowing flames. I keep a string of fairy lanterns near my bed for comfort and sweet dreams.

Whatever religious purposes they serve, there is a universal meaning of light and fire: liberation, hope and belief, purification, newness, victory and rebirth. They mark the significance of major (and minor) milestones, our shared human story.

Here’s a verse from the song Hard Sun taken from the soundtrack of the movie Into the Wild:

There’s a big
A big hard sun
Beating on the big people
In the big hard world.

- Rosa Wong
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Diwali Festival - Championing Good Over Evil with Harmony & Light

This week, Halloween festivities kick into high gear, with the holiday falling on Friday.

In the Hindu world, this week marks a celebration of another kind. In India and Indian communities around the globe (including Sikhs and Jains), Tuesday is the beginning of Diwali, or the "Festival of Lights." Although a harvest festival at its core, having originated to celebrate the last harvest before winter, what appeals to me about this rich and powerfully transformational period is its symbolic championing of good over evil. While festivities and lore differ from region to region, Diwali is a time of embracing the return of goodwill and faith after an absence of both.

And given the morass of fear and negativity that we have been living under in recent weeks, such a message is definitely a welcome one. As farmers give thanks for the bounty of the year past and pray for a good harvest in the year to come, I am reminded that gratitude is a grounding anchor in these times of uncertainty and foreboding. That the Goddess Lakshmi, a symbol of wealth and prosperity, is among the deities most revered at this time is comforting not necessarily for the material gains that are her purveyance but because she also represents spiritual wealth. And as a domestic goddess, despite being revered by business men and women alike, I see in her honoring an invitation to nurture the things close to the home and heart.

For despite all the colorful ritual and pageantry, the fireworks and flowers, elaborate feasts and adornment in new clothes, Diwali is a festival for rejoicing in the invisible: the awareness of an inner light. And it is that light that these times seem to be calling for the most. It is in returning to our true nature, and tapping into the immanent truth of our being as pure love, that we can remain unshakable in our faith, optimism and hope when the news would have us cowering or raging against a barrage of the dire and dismal.

Diwali reminds us that there is the surface reality of things and the underlying, or transcendent, reality, where darkness is overcome. Which one are you choosing to feed? You can be sure I'll be having my fun with the Halloween revelers on Friday but I'll also be more conscious this week of the energies with which I align, knowing that inside, as my father would so often tell me in college, I have all the resources I need.

- Naila Francis
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