Wisdom, Joy, and All Experience
Greet the Solstice with a Renewed Commitment to Divine Creativity
We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming…They are gifts from the Universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to Life when each arrives. We have always done that, and we always have. Now we have a new and liberating awareness. We can greet all the experiences of our lives joyfully and use them all wisely. — Gary Zukav
Known for books like The Dancing Wu Li Masters and The Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav (b. 1942) explores the interface between science, consciousness and spirituality. This quote, about the meaning and invitation of the solstices, comes from an article he wrote some years ago for Huffington Post.
Depending on where you are on the planet, winter solstice arrives either around the third week of December or the third week of June. The summer solstice, naturally, is six months removed from the winter. The seasons come regardless of our preference (I recently returned to Atlanta after three weeks in Hawaii; I had no say over the sudden return to chilly temperate weather after my tropical respite!), but we alway retain the ability to choose how we respond to the seasons, and what that response may entail. How can we meet each new season in a way that contributes to life? That embodies wisdom, and manifests joy? These are not merely academic questions: they are invitations to that place of mystery where all experiences lead to insight and felicity, and therefore to a transformed life in service of a transformed world.
Mysticism is about transformation. Every mystical experience, no matter how big or small, how shattering or subtle, how quick or protracted, always leaves the mystic — and their world — permanently changed. Contemplation is receptive, quiet, and humble, but it is never passive. We enter into silence to find a divine voice; we rest in stillness so that we may be moved to life-restoring action. Each solstice may bring us to a different season, for the earth or for our lives; but what each of these transitions has in common is its capacity to make us radically new and profoundly creative: so that we may partner with the One in bringing forth something surprising and wondrous, that has never been seen or known before.
Quotation source: Gary Zukav, “Solstice Joy,” Huffington Post, December 27, 2011/Updated February 26, 2012.