In this third week of November, like the earth, I find myself growing quietly reflective as the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer. My biorhythms seem to be changing with the trees as they slowly shed their leaves to create new scenes, to speak of reprieves from the many changes that have brought me here. How about you? Are you sensing the change of seasons, the shifts in energy, the endings and beginnings of a new season within that cause you to deepen your silence and open your heart? 

With a new sense of openness and wonder, there seems to be an air of mystery in the stillness and the wind. As we disconnect from the news of the day that broadcasts 24/7, we can allow ourselves to drift with the leaves as they continue to dislodge from the trees. The energies of Life that flow through the open fields and wooded forests speak words of wisdom discerned through the realms of wonder, paradox, and mystery. These unknown energies seem to be teaching us the secrets of our souls. I wonder. . .

Having again stepped deeply into Celtic Christian spirituality, there’s been a subtle shift in my awareness. It’s as if the whispers of eternity flow over the mountains and across the plains with the wind. The wilderness we all live in stretches out before us opening a passageway, a portal into the mysteries of Spirit. In the silence; the earth, air and warmth of the heart awaken to something unspeakable. Watching, listening and waiting for compassion draws it near. Without a word, Love is here. 

It’s said that over the centuries the Celts forged an identity rooted in a deep sense of nature, a love for Spirit and a passion for kinship. They embraced silence, solitude, beauty, selflessness, deep listening, reverence and inner peace. They adopted a way of seeing the world that called for reverence and an awareness of ‘thin places‘ that held and transmitted a palpable energy soothing the soul and awakening the heart. Might we too grow quieter and rest in the arms of the earth, die to the old and birth the new? 

As I think about the end of my life, the end of the known, the end of the world; I wonder.

Maybe the end is not a place in time and space. Maybe it’s a place of the heart, of everything that is. Maybe the Source of Life is a place that’s beyond time and space. Maybe the Divine is an energy that permeates the known and unknown universe that’s beyond our imagination, yet ever present in our midst. Maybe the month of November invites us into a portal of dying and living, darkness and light, into the edge of mystery.   

When we venture into the depths, we experience life differently. We wake up to the ever present wisdom of uncertainty that allows us to know in our not knowing. We discover new lands within that reshape our perceptions and open us to new possibilities  We no longer see death as an end but as another beginning. We perceive the Autumns of our life, the Novembers of our life as gateways, portals, transitions into new potentialities. We, like the trees, willingly let go our leaves and give up transient possessions. Here, in the mystery of timelessness silence, we experience new birth.

• What would happen if you would accept the invitation of November to watch, listen and wait for compassion to draw you near, to realize that Love is always here?
• Like the earth in the month of November, are you willing to grow quiet and allow the new life within you to birth something new in the next season of soul? If so, what would you envision coming from this new birth?
• What new life is hiding under the coverings you’ve wrapped around yourself? Why are you hiding? What are your fears?