The Tao of the Holidays
by Terah Kathryn Collins
O, here they come! The parade of holidays is about to begin. While meant to be relaxing and enjoyable times, holidays can also be quite stressful. When we look through the eyes of the Tao (the Way to sustain or regain harmony) we can identify ways to diminish stress and increase our harmony-quotient throughout the season.
Take a few moments to define in detail your own version of an ideal holiday. Consider reinventing any traditions that cause you stress. Ask yourself “how would my holidays be if they were exactly the way I’d love them to be?” Contemplate the following questions, focusing solely upon your personal preferences.
Autumn’s Call: Let it Fall
Autumn catches our attention by dressing up and then undressing. Summer’s leaf-green robes turn an array of flamboyant colors and then slowly fall away, revealing the shoulder of a branch here and the torso of a trunk there until much of the landscape is bare. Nature provides us with quite a show as trees and plants shed their bright leaves, freeing themselves of what is no longer necessary.
As a keen observer of Nature, I deeply appreciate the qualities of each season. Autumn, it appears, celebrates the shedding of the old…. and we are all invited to the party! Imagine your invitation fluttering down into your hands, scripted upon a golden leaf:
‘Tis the Season to Let Go
Color what no longer serves you with gratitude
and let it fall away
Grateful, Grateful, Grateful, Gone…
RSVP “Yes” and lighten up! Living with what you no longer want or need is heavy, cumbersome, and blocks the flow of vital energy that nurtures your life. Autumn encourages you to be like a tree and shed the possessions, relationships, attitudes, and habits that don’t serve you now. In doing so, you align with the essence of Fall and prepare your inner and outer space to receive Winter’s gifts of stillness, introspection, and the inception of new dreams.
Contemplative Practice: Stand or sit near a deciduous tree whose leaves are changing color. Choose a fallen leaf, feel its lightness, and observe its colors. How does the leaf symbolize a person, place, object, or way of being that has passed – or is passing – out of your life? What can you do now to honor and celebrate it? Have you, with gratitude, let it go? If you haven’t let it go yet, how can you do so now? Consider jotting down your thoughts in a journal and pressing the leaf between the pages…..
Home Sweet Sacred Home
I have spent the past 2 weeks in Northern California in WSFS teacher Karen Abler Carrasco’s home – a place I’ve visited before and have always loved. Karen lives in a wonderful vintage farmhouse she calls Rosie, who is like a “big mother hen protecting her chicks” (Karen’s son David’s description). Rosie is painted a soft buttery yellow with lovely red doors and lots of windows. Her garden is a series of outdoor rooms, offering shady and sunny places to enjoy the many flowers, vegetables, and trees Karen has planted, as well as the pond she and David built together. It is truly a Home Sweet Home.
Read More
365 Vacations a Year
Essential Feng Shui observes that most people in western cultures pursue lifestyles that are overly active. Though collectively encouraged, incessant ‘doing’ tips the balance of our health and happiness. Taking the time each day to be becomes our daily vacation. Quietude nurtures the heart and provides us with the space to reflect, dream, and soak up the richness of our inner world. Rest and the fine art of being opens us up to receive and explore sparks of genius that live like polished gemstones beneath the busy surface of life. We dive in and are washed clean. Refreshed, we re-enter the world with our pockets full of deep insights. These insights weave their way into our daily activities and we experience being in sync with the transformational flow of a balanced life.
Here are 2 of my recent journal musings that touch upon this:
Read More
Power Objects Grow Our Love
Everyone wants freedom. Freedom from the outer-world strains of job pressures, relationship difficulties, financial issues or health concerns. Freedom from inner-world feelings of insecurity or oppression. In many people, it is a combination of these desires. Whatever the case or whatever the mental stressors; what every soul longs for is freedom to experience love—to love and be loved.
Read More
The Eternal Dance of Madame Yin & Master Yang
In Feng Shui, balance – the harmonious interplay between opposite forces – is the key to creating happiness. These opposite forces are called Yin and Yang and they define the dual nature of our entire universe. The happiness you strive for – or currently enjoy – is inherent in the delightful “just right” balance between Yin and Yang extremes. You are continually defining your preferences and making adjustments to strike such a balance in your everyday life. Think of the difference between taking a nice warm shower versus a scalding or freezing one; sitting in a beautifully lit room versus one that is blindingly bright or pitch-dark; participating in a friendly conversation versus a stony silence or loud argument. Happiness thrives in the human-friendly conditions of harmony, comfort, pleasure, and beauty; conditions we enjoy when we know how to balance the Yin and Yang qualities of our lives.
Whether you are a woman or a man, you’ll find that both Yin and Yang qualities abound within and around you. They are not gender specific. The strongest, most masculine man in the world has qualities associated with the classically feminine Yin.
Read More
Stay Connected
