We can do hard things

Before a ceremony, I always like to go out on my own to connect to nature and the elements. Whether it's getting up early to watch the sunrise that morning or watching the sunset the night before (actually seeing the sun isn’t always possible with our wonderful UK weather, but you get the idea!)

So yesterday, in preparation for our Samhain Cacao and Sound Ceremony in Glossop, I took myself out on a nice big sunset walk to go and visit my favourite rock. The wind and rain/ice were lashing at my face, and at times, it felt like cold needles stabbing into my cheeks; it was brutal… I stopped to take shelter and to put on some more layers. I wondered, should I turn back? This gruelling…. I considered it for a moment, weighing up how it would feel to turn back or continue… and then the lesson came.

My favourite rock wasn’t far away now. I’d put all the hard work in, the brutal uphill climb, being battered by the storm, I’d got through most exposed parts of the walk… Soon I’d be in a more sheltered spot and I’d feel better for completing my mission.

I CAN DO HARD THINGS.

I continued on, laughing at myself for even contemplating giving up . I looked at the bleak grey, swirling sky ahead of me and then noticed a change. I turned around to see the most beautiful glorious slither of golden sunlight making it through the clouds. I hadn’t expected to see the Sun on this walk at all and there it was, my reward. The message.

We are in a storm right now. Humanity is battling for its own existence and it feels exhausting. Everything has been made harder, they are trying their best to grind us down. It can feel hopeless…

But then you see that little slither of sunlight, connection, community, kindness, laughter, beauty… We can be these things for one and another we can be these things for ourselves.

On Samhain that liminal moment in time between summer and winter, between light and dark, between life and death we stand at a pivotal time for humanity. The death of an old way and the beginning of another. The breaking of cycles and the start of our New Earth. This isn’t the end. It is the beginning…

Keep going, keep caring, keep loving, keep sharing. x