Waiting for a Birth

Waiting for a Birth

"The world has tilted far
from the sun, from color and juice....
I am waiting for a birth that will change everything."
    __ Hilary Llewellyn-Williams, "The Tree Calendar"


  The rebirth of the sun begins on this day, though it seems as short and dark as the previous ones. Althought we prepare for the holiday season, there is another urgency in us - to consciously experience the mysterious change that comes over the world at this time, affecting all creatures.

  We do indeed wait for 'a birth that will change everything,' and give us joy and fresh hope. For Christians this sense of waiting has its own special manifestation in the person of Jesus CHrist and his Christmas birthday. But many earlier societies have also celebrated the birth of their special Revealer at this time, turning into the implicit urgency for change and rebirth. Festivals of lights and stories of the triumph of light over darkness are celebrated and told. Our current bustle to conslude midwinter holiday preparations is like the mother's last-minute bustle to make things ready for the baby's birth.

  But what waits to be born in us at this time of year? It is a glorious heroic light that blazes forth with the fierce directness of an innocence that we need now. It is a deep renewal in our lives that we crave; it is the rebirth innate qualities that will not fail or become slothful or be deterred by obstacles, that will be responsive and true, honest and enduring, bright and shining.

  In the busy, celebratory days to come, take time to acknowledge this very necessary rebirth that is happening within ourselves: time to draw apart and be still, to clear a space wherein we can be attentive to the change that is happening within us at the fulcrum of the year.

"Meditate upon what needs to be reborn in your life. Which qualities, skills, and talents bring light and hope into your life?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]