The Return of the Light
Path friends,
It’s dark outside. I’m writing from my room in Rishikesh, and it is now the last minutes before winter solstice. I’m having a cup of golden milk made with ayurvedic herbs and soy milk. This is the darkest day of the year. The day when the Light starts to come back to the Northern hemisphere, and the days start to get longer and longer.
So much is happening in my time in India. (It always does!) In and Out, above and below. It is such a joy to be Present to life unfolding.
From my room at this yoga school I reignited my love of Findhorn, my determination to keep practicing the dharma, my deep and so special connection to Tibet, my love of Active Hope, my delight in Body Mind Centering, my never-ending interest in philosophy, my big love of the Lam Rim, a profound love and appreciation for Lama Zopa Rinpoche and HH the Dalai Lama and Khandro la, and I also extended my ever present gratitude for psychotherapy & astrology.
It’s so special how, when you look from a slightly different perspective, you can see a new angle you had missed when you were looking from the center.
Yoga is not a central piece in my life. It’s a very important one, but it’s secondary to the ones I have put in the center. So I’m not used to looking at life through the eyes of yoga like this. And to also have a vision informed by the co-presence of exactly this group of beautiful human beings here together doing this one yoga course.
I am so very grateful for this perspective. It’s helping me see things differently, and a lot of it is such a happy surprise. Gaining a somatic perspective of how rooted and how settled my favorite practices & disciplines really are - inside and out. So many steps, during so many years, and my life really became those things I chose to make it about.
It is a cliché, but one step after the other really does get us there.
Rishikesh is a special place to connect with a much younger me, who first got here in the year 2004. Coming overland from Lhasa, on a long, long journey over the Himalayas to land here by the Ganges, trying to make sense of Life. I wish my old self could know how bright and special life would continue to be. How grateful the me of now is for all the restless exploration of my youth. The never ending energy always ready to travel further and ask deeper questions and continue to seek until she found answers. Thank you.
Answers arrived. Teachers were always here. It all started to make sense. Life became gentle and kind. Presence became grounded. Calmness started to land. Roots grew. Everything settled. The blessing of serenity. Always grateful.
✨
One of my biggest joys at the moment is making everything I can a little simpler. My practice, my words, hugs, travel, friendship, a smile, love, breakfast, prayer, everything. Letting go of complexity, and welcoming simplicity.
Keeping it simple, here are a few Winter Solstice questions for you:
What part of your life has been nourished by the compost growing the in the dark?
What do you want to let go of from the dark days of the year? What is ready and wanting to be released?
Where in your life do you welcome the light?
Where is the light showing you the way?
In what ways are you the Light?
✨
I send you a warm and bright hug from Rishikesh,
and wish you a happy return of the LIGHT,
Rita
