Friday, February 4, 2011

Today is New Year's Day!

It's New Year's Day...not for everyone, maybe, but it can be. While many celebrated on January first, others celebrated the new year in December at the Winter Solstice, the day when the sun went down earliest and we got through the longest dark night of the year. Some celebrated it a few days ago, on Candlemas, which is also Imbolc, February 2nd. This is the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox, when day and night are perfectly balanced, equal in length as the wheel of the year turns toward summer.

But I woke up today, aware that I let these other days slide with little recognition, a fact that bothers me. Sure, we're all busy, we all have commitments and jobs and things that crop up, and family members who need us. The New Year's Eve party, with its champagne and glitter and watching the ball drop in Times Square, has honestly never done anything for me, never touched my heart. I prefer to stay home, warm and safe and watching the snow, sending out wishes for luck and prosperity and safe travels to their own homes to those who risk the icy roads and weary drivers.

I look around my house and see that I did put away all the Yule decorations before Imbolc, which is appropriate; nothing from the observance of the old year should be carried into the new. It's time to look forward, yet it's also time to remember to live in the moment, to appreciate what is in our lives right now. It's far too easy to get stuck in our resentments and pain of the past, which will pull us down as if into a tar pit, and we'll be preserved there in our anger and venom forever. It's also too easy to live life solely in the future, in dreams of what could be, what we think should be, of finally being happy someday when only this happens or that is finally over.

Nonsense. It's time to put the past behind us, to learn the lessons from it and keep the memories of joy, and let the rest return to the Universe. It's also good to have dreams for the future, but when they stop us from living our lives, they're no longer dreams. They're illusions.

We should all have goals, things that will bring joy into our lives when we achieve them, and something to work toward. But if you feel that happiness will automatically come on the day that such-and-such finally happens, you're fooling yourself. Let it go! You have all you need right now, you don't need to wait for joy.

There are days when it seems that happiness eludes us and always will; trust me, these times come to everyone, and they pass. What you will always have, is yourself. See that capacity for joy within you. You have it, some days we just need to dig deeper to find it. There is always help, too. Family and friends can sometimes help you find that joy, but sometimes being alone will do it, or listening to a favorite piece of music, or walking on a beach or in the woods.

Don't limit yourself, either. Even if you don't live in Hawaii, you can still visit a beach. I go to a nearby lake even in winter, and watch the waves send up showers of spray to form bizarre fantasy ice sculptures at the edge of the water. The air is cold, but clear, and I can stand in the sun and listen to the sound of the waves, and be alone with my thoughts. This is what makes me whole, and I know now that I need to visit water frequently, to hear the sound of waves and to feel sand beneath my feet, even when it's frozen.

I'm lucky to live where I do, near a beach and also near a river that runs through a park near my house. I can walk there and see the afternoon light filter through leaves on a summer afternoon, watching the gold and green sparkling on the water, and feeling life come back into me after a long day spent in the city, breathing fumes and walking on pavement.

So do that today. Give yourself the gift of whatever makes your life rich and full of joy. Call a friend. Hug someone. Spend time alone. Savor a cup of your favorite hot coffee, or a cold margarita. Infuse your life with joy, and it will spread to those around you. Make today, truly, the first day of the rest of your life, and care for your newborn self as you would any other infant. Be gentle, be loving, be forgiving, and do something fun.

As the days go on, continue to care for yourself and others in this way, and look at your life with new eyes. Examine what you're doing with it, and whether you're bringing joy to yourself and to the world. If not, what can you change? What new goals can you set for yourself? Don't push your happiness away to some arbitrary future date, but use it to fuel your steps to reach greater heights. Find your purpose, your bliss, and take one step toward it. Then resolve each day to take one more.

You will not only find your own joy, you will become a light in the darkness for others as well. And that's what Candlemas is all about, really. The Festival of Lights, the return of the Sun and its life-giving energy. We have the ability to bring that into our lives and to shine it out to others.

Let's do it.