![\"New](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/astraea.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/solstice-newgrange.jpg\")
<\/a>Imagine you live 10,000 years ago, somewhere above latitude 45 or so, you would notice the lengthening of the days a couple of weeks after December solstice.\u00a0 That meant you might survive.<\/p>\nEven 5,000 years ago communities had invested so much in understanding the solar cycle that farmers in the Boyne Valley, Ireland built New Grange, an 85 metre diameter stone\u00a0 tomb, which has a light box which\u00a0 illuminates a 19 metre long passage and chamber as the sun rises on solstice morning!\u00a0 The solar bounce was important to their livelihoods.<\/p>\n
No, this is not a morbid view.\u00a0 It’s reality.\u00a0 Facing reality gives truth to our lives.<\/p>\n
If there is a beginning or end to the solar cycle, it would be a solstice.\u00a0 For us in the northern hemisphere the December solstice seems like the end because nature is quiet in look, sound and feel.\u00a0 Trees are bare as leaves have fallen and still lie brown and dead on the ground.\u00a0\u00a0 Birds are quiet, hiding from the cold.\u00a0 They flock to any spill of farmer’s grain or bag of nuts on a window sill as they try to survive winter.\u00a0 It is cold.<\/p>\n This dead season is the result of withdrawal of the light and heat of our star, the sun,\u00a0 which gives us life.<\/p>\n But nature is ready for rebirth, for a new beginning.\u00a0 The days are now lengthening again.\u00a0 In a week or two we’ll notice that the darkness leaves a little earlier in the morning and a little later in the evening.\u00a0 The daffodils are already sprouting through the grass.\u00a0 Early buds are showing.\u00a0 The flowers will not be the same as those from last year, they will be different, but similar.\u00a0 They are built upon the life before.<\/p>\n If we reflect on the reality of nature’s cycle, we begin to respect that it is a continuous rhythm.\u00a0 There is no start and stop, no discontinuity.\u00a0 No beginning and no end.\u00a0 That is life.\u00a0 Life and death are connected.\u00a0 Death promises life and rebirth, as compost of the summers growth feeds the blossoms of the coming year.<\/p>\n This realisation, so obscured by the mythologies of my upbringing, has helped me face death.\u00a0 Not my own, but that of friends.\u00a0 And we have seen too much death in our little community this year.\u00a0 Tragedy has taken close friends and their value in the community is missed.\u00a0 Pat, who helped me understand nature and farming, who could tame a wild horse by grabbing his tongue and with whom I was wrestling on his drawing room floor this time last year, was taken by a brain tumour.\u00a0 Rosebud, who welcomed me when I returned to Ireland nearly two decades ago and has always worked for a better world, was also decimated by the big C.\u00a0 Perhaps most sad was the loss of our neighbour, 26 year old Bill in a traffic accident a couple of weeks ago – he always had time to help anyone who needed it.<\/p>\n So how can you face the loss of friends and family, unexpected or not?\u00a0 If you loved them, it will not be easy.\u00a0 If you have empathy it will not be easy.\u00a0 But if you can respect the reality of the cycle of life, perhaps you can accept it and make something good of it.\u00a0 Perhaps you can be more like those lost friends.\u00a0 Perhaps the passing of someone good can be the inspiration for their values and inspiration to grow again, and spread.\u00a0 As a dying blossom lets its seeds fall to the wind for some to regrow anew, more widely dispersed, perhaps you can take the virtues of family and friends who have died to inspire a better life.\u00a0 That gives tribute to their generosity, humour, virtue and makes the world a better place.\u00a0 So I try a little harder to work and give, like Pat, Rose and Bill … and others, close to me who have died.<\/p>\n And what of soul?\u00a0 For me, their spirit has rejoined the ocean of spirit that flows through the universe.\u00a0 It is clear that there is a metaphysical existence in which we all participate.\u00a0 While we live, we influence it.\u00a0 When we die, it becomes compost as our physical bodies do.\u00a0 Our spirit becomes indistinguishable from the entirety of the spiritual dimension, as flesh become soil indistinguishable from the physical world.<\/p>\n At this time of year, it is easy to be blinded by the mythologies of our past culture and, worse, the influence of modern, consumer culture.\u00a0 The glitz and feasts stacked high in every shop promise a well fed, easy, bountiful celebration.\u00a0 But that is not what we need.\u00a0 It does not nurture our soul and the consumption of gifts and grub invariably results in indigestion and disappointments.\u00a0 While a billion people starve.<\/p>\n It does not have to be so.\u00a0 Our world can not continue as it has.\u00a0 It is breaking.\u00a0 Our society and nature are cracking up.\u00a0 It’s not as it once was.\u00a0 The limits to growth<\/a> have been breached.\u00a0 We must shrink our human impact.\u00a0 We must change our system.\u00a0 We must enlighten our behaviour.<\/p>\n To find ourselves, our talents, our spirit we must start with ourselves.\u00a0 Contemplating our connection to nature and facing its realities helps us find equanimity, build friendships and fulfil the promise of life.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Recognise the\u00a0natural connection between death and life which are part of the same cycle. To see death and life as part of the same thing, to be the same thing, is reality.\u00a0 We must die.\u00a0 But our impact continues in the cycle of life.\u00a0 Facing reality gives truth to our lives. Let go of attachments to find the bounty of truth and enlightenment.\u00a0 All is one.\u00a0 Enjoy the cycle of life.<\/p>\n Link: Meditation for peace.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This time of year has had special significance for millennia. Why? Because it is the end of the annual spiral to darkness and nature’s rebirth.\u00a0 Solstice is a time of rejoicing because it means winter darkness is lifting, warmth will return,\u00a0 and food will become available again. Imagine you live 10,000 years ago, somewhere above …<\/a>“Solstice” is an event in a cycle.\u00a0 It is the moment when either north or south pole of planet earth, spinning on its tilted axis around the sun, passes a point most extreme from the sun.<\/p>\n<\/a>
Continue reading The Cycle of Life, and Death.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,3,35],"tags":[176,177,95,178,153],"class_list":["post-2992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perspective","category-holonics","category-homenandgarden","tag-christmas","tag-cycle-of-life","tag-death","tag-life","tag-solstice"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-Mg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2992"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3016,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992\/revisions\/3016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}