2024 Winter Solstice Message From Cie
The 2024 Winter Solstice begins Saturday, December 21st at 4:20 a.m.

The Winter Solstice signals the return of the Light and a time of quiet reflection. It is also a precursor to Christmas, which brings up images of family and festivity – but this is not always everyone’s experience. Christmas can be a lonely time. Some may have lost a family member in the preceding year, and so the holiday is bittersweet. Others may live alone. Family may live far away, and connecting on the phone isn’t the same as visiting and experiencing the season together. Older people who used to be surrounded by family and friends may find their life circumstances have changed, so that what they always relied on, doesn’t exist anymore in their world. Even young people may not be able to return home for the holidays, or if they do, there may be unresolved conflicts or personality clashes that get in the way. Loneliness and depression may begin to settle in for many people. There are, however, ways to alleviate or lessen that. One may find the practices and attitudes below to be helpful all year round, and especially when there is stress, which we are all subject to at times.

Here are a few suggestions for pivoting our energy from unhappiness and stress, and shifting into something that feels better:

  • If you or someone you know is experiencing difficulty this season, the best thing you can do is introduce kindness and empathy. Kindness gets us through struggle faster and makes life sweeter. Being kind to others is a gift to both the receiver and the giver.
  • Humor and laughter brighten any day and remind us of good things. Try googling some jokes, and pick your favorites for when you go shopping or running errands. People working in the stores appreciate a good laugh.
  • Don’t build walls. Stay connected in your community – through events, groups you could be part of, or by volunteering – perhaps at a pet shelter or a community kitchen.
  • Even if you live alone, decorate for Christmas or Hanukkah. A tabletop tree is so much better than no tree at all. And those with roots can be planted later.
  • Call an old friend or relative you haven’t reached out to in a while.
  • Don’t be a couch potato. Exercise gets both the body and the heart chakra moving.
  • Do something creative. If you don’t have an art form, just sing or dance around to stir those creative forces. You can also meditate or do Tapping (EFT) to raise your energy.
  • Find something to savor about the moment you are in. It can be the sunshine, the trees, your loyal pet, or the fact that you have food and water. Let yourself feel grateful for what you do have. For, as they say in Jersey, “It could always be woise.” (worse)
  • Envision the end result you want to experience, and don’t be concerned with how it can happen. Just see it happening.
  • Call upon one of your guides, or guardian angel, or a soul you were close to, that has passed from this life, or a favorite saint or master, and ask them to be your guide for the day. Be quietly expectant of help managing the day.

Oh, and one more thing – and this isn’t a sales pitch: My book, The Path of Love; A Way to Heal, published on Amazon was created especially to help us all, me included, through tough times like these. If you do have it, or decide to get it, I’ve found the best way to use it is to hold it for a moment, meditatively, until it feels like the right time and then let yourself open it to the place that feels right. I, and others who have the book have found it always opens to exactly what you needed to read to give you solace, encouragement, and comfort your soul.

Here’s one of the poems from The Path of Love; A Way to Heal:

CEREMONY OF LIGHT

It’s five o’clock in the evening on New Year’s Eve
The candle flame illuminates the room
Everything else recedes into the background
except for the brilliance of the flame
shaped like a Christmas tree

The world is quiet
as beams of beaded Light
arc straight into my heart
The brilliant beacon
fills me with luminescence

Halos of brightness radiate from
the flame dancing in the windless room
Energy emanates out in waves
I sing the first verse of O’ Holy Night,
my favorite Christmas song

I had not completely understood
before, how Light heals
but now, I allow it to fill me
with hope, and another aspect –
physical healing from Light

My soul summons everyone
I know, or have known –
friends, students, family,
healing clients – to energetically
enter the Light of the flame

I send a call to all who are suffering
to let Light surround them,
ministering to their pain,
For the Light of Illumination
is a healing for the world

There are many types of Light
Sunlight makes everything grow
It lightens the heart, and stimulates
nutrients for the body’s use
Everyone is happier when the sun shines

Moonlight restores everyone’s feminine,
intuitive side
It goes deep into the wells
of the unconscious,
revealing our instinctual selves

Light is integral to living on Earth
Facilitating our exploration
of what came before,
what is,
and what is to come

Let us celebrate
the power of Light
to heal, to brighten our days,
to give us insight into our lives
And move us closer to Enlightenment

Have a Blessed Solstice, a Merry Christmas, & Happy New Year,

In Love & Kinship,

Cie

Cie Simurro~Thunderbird Starwoman
OPEN ARMS HEALING
PO Box 295
Shelburne Falls MA 01370
413 625-0385
cie@ciesimurro.com
HEALING FOR PEOPLE & ANIMALS
THE PATH OF LOVE ♥ A WAY TO HEAL
published on Amazon
Totem Articles www.wisdom-magazine.com
www.facebook.com/CieSimurroThunderbirdStarwoman
LET’S GET REAL-EYES’D