It is challenging to be present in the present moment when you are filled with anxiety or going through a crisis with adrenaline pumping through your body. It can be hard to be present in your body if you are experiencing a traumatic event or a past trauma is triggered. It can be hard to be present in your mind and concentrate on anything if you are grieving.
The practices that are keeping me present these days are small practices. Noticing the touch of soft fabric on my skin. Going for a walk and looking up at the tree branches against the sky. Feeling the weight of my cat in my lap at the end of the day when we settle on the couch together. Humming a favorite tune. Stopping to take five deep breaths in a row whenever I am rushing about too much. It’s the small moments of presence that keep me centered.
We are heading toward the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. It is my favorite holiday, a time when I go inward, listen to calming music, write to long-time friends, and sing songs to myself like “Dark of Winter” from our hymnal and “The Dark” by Mary Grigolia, and Peter Mayer’s “The Longest Night.” The music helps me rest and receive the gifts of the darkness while trusting the light will come again.
Here are a few lyrics to cradle you while we wait for the new year. From Mary Grigolia’s “The Dark”:
I sing to the light that I see out the door,
and it’s dark, dark inside.
I sing for the challenges this path has in store,
and it’s dark, dark outside.
Oh the darkness takes courage, the darkness takes time,
living in the darkness brings a different state of mind,
The darkness knows healing, the darkness knows change,
Oh mother darkness I return to you again.
And from “The Longest Night” by Peter Mayer:
Light a candle, sing a song
Say that the shadows shall not cross
Make an oblation out of all you’ve lost
In the longest night.
Gather friends and cast your hopes
Into the fire as it snows
And stare at God through the dark windows
Of the longest night
Of the year.
A night that seems like a lifetime
If you’re waiting for the sun
So why not sing to the nighttime
And the burning stars up above?
No matter what is happening, why not be present for just a moment and sing to the burning stars up above, my friends! See you at church.
Yours,
Dena
Rev. Dena McPhetres, Associate Minister