December 2021

Hello and Happy December to you.

As I sit to write to you in the waning light of this cool December day, my monthly mantra is burning bright in my heart and this powerful poem comes to mind once again, as it often does this time of year:

How the Light Comes

I cannot tell you

how the light comes.

What I know

is that it is more ancient

than imagining.

That it travels

across an astounding expanse

to reach us.

That it loves

searching out

what is hidden,

what is lost,

what is forgotten

or in peril

or in pain.

That it has a fondness

for the body,

for finding its way

toward flesh,

for tracing the edges

of form,

for shining forth

through the eye,

the hand,

the heart.

I cannot tell you

how the light comes,

but that it does.

That it will.

That it works its way

into the deepest dark

that enfolds you,

though it may seem

long ages in coming

or arrive in a shape

you did not foresee.

And so

may we this day

turn ourselves toward it.

May we lift our faces

to let it find us.

May we bend our bodies

to follow the arc it makes.

May we open

and open more

and open still

to the blessed light

that comes.

—Jan Richardson

This month my mantra is an invocation to the light that fuels us. To the light that burns within our hearts and lives and moves us through the darkness. Often the reference of darkness portrays a heaviness or challenge to our experience of being. I am looking to it as a necessary part of our cycles of life, and as we move toward equinox and the darkest day of the year, I honor the darkness as a balancing factor and opportunity to slow down enough to gaze upon the light within.

In my experience of being in this moment of life, the light is coming through in the form of my son. His smile, his energy and his exuberant ignorance of the world around him. I can’t help but be in awe of him and his curiosity. Observing him in the most simple of situations brings light to my whole being.

This awareness brings much joy to me as I emerge from the deep struggles during this first year of his life that brought extreme postpartum effects that wreaked havoc on my heart and mind. I now, with deep introspection, assurance & gratitude, am able to look back on that time, that darkness, and see it as a wildly integral part of my life cycle, my unfolding as a mother as well as a spiritual being.

In Jan Richardson's poem she tells us that she doesn't know when the light comes, but that it does in all the ways we need it to, and to “turn ourselves toward it” to open and open still. So this month I encourage you, as I am, to turn your heart toward the light that inspires you, that fuels you, that makes your heart sing. Turn toward loved ones and nature. To music and food, to all the things that light you up. Feel the light within yourself and celebrate it.

I honor the light in you.

Peace,

Margot

You can watch the full Mantra video here