In My Grandmother’s Words…
A Winter Solstice Blessing and Inquiry
Dear one,
Happy Winter Solstice 🤍
As I reflect on the last few weeks leading up to this day, I notice this message of peace that has become salient in my awareness. Whether it was driving by a samosa truck that read, “the currency of peace”, or talking to my Buddhist Uber driver who shared that the most important sensation he lives by is his peace and pleasure. It also has been the UN Chief saying, “we have to make peace with nature”. As I contemplate peace and how it shows up in my life, I remember that being raised Muslim, I know that Islam literally means peace. So as I embark on this journey of a new year, I wonder what does peace look like? What is a peaceful life? What does peace mean?
The questions I ask myself to continue this inquiry:
What are acts of peace or peaceful actions?
What does peaceful conflict look like?
What does peace within my community look like? With my close ones? In myself?
What does peace with my environment (nature, technology, home) look like?
In what moments do I feel peace?
What do I do when I need to feel peaceful?
How can I integrate this message into my life, because ultimately, I can embody peace. As this year has presented challenges of re-integration, revelations of ourselves and others, and opportunities in ways I might not have imagined; it reminds me that I can’t change what is outside of me. What I can notice and embody is my own internal peace and act with that perceptual frame. Maybe then I’ll be able to notice more peace in my life.
May you find peace in your shadow, may you find fulfillment in your light and may this winter-solstice rainbow remind you that there are many colours, shades and nuances for us to explore this winter, as the snow begins to fall – dampening the sounds and leaving us to ourselves, our silence and our shadows ✨🌈
In my Grandmothers words is inspired by what I imagined my grandmother would say to me as she guided me through her wisdom. It is an integration of all the grandmother lineages that have been present in my life (Q’ero, Islam, Feldenkrais, Sivananda formally) and extensive academic and experiential inquiry to enrich. I thank the divine and all my teachers and mentors for guiding me and ask for forgiveness for any misinterpretation that is my own.
With love,
Saadia
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