A Child on Christmas Morning

A Morning Ritual of Light

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Listen Here- Podcast Style

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In order for the light to shine so brightly, darkness must be present.

Francis Bacon

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Photo Dec 20/2023 by J.Millard

Witnessing the releasing light of dawn for me is an act of prayer. Dawn shows up in my writing over and over again. It is spiritual medicine to voyeuristically witness the sun kissing the moon.

A Gasm of Light

There’s some thing about the light as it releases from the dark
If there was ever medicine for the soul
it must be Dawn
It’s a remedy of faith
No words are necessary in the awe of surrender
My bones stand at attention
Just to be a witness to the splendour
As the miracle comes to call on me once again
The softness breaks free around my heart
I’m swallowed by waves of being
in a moment of becoming
I disappear
Just to arrive
All over again

©Jamie Millard

A Soulstice

The winter solstice of 2023 has arrived. I like to call it the soulstice. The winter soulstice represents the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It is the official beginning of the winter season, here, in Canada. Winter is often associated with a sense of darkness yet it is truly a time of rebirth of light. The Christmas story of Christians is the story of a baby born to be the light of the world. A baby, Jesus, who came to show us how to use our light. Older cultures of the north celebrated the soulstice as the beginning of the new year. In old Frisian the word jole or jule roughly translates to circle. This word gave rise to Yule, the festival to celebrate the coldest and shortest day of the year which started a new circle in the cosmic calendar of existence. Going back to the earliest known records it is safe to say most winter soulstice celebrations were welcoming back the sun and embracing the return of the light.

The Gift of Light

I love to celebrate the return of the light every day as a gift of gratitude. It is a ritual of spiritual practice. The light is never truly gone, even in the deepest depths of darkness. We are always on a journey from darkness to light. A circle of belonging. Dawn is a time of possibility and promise. We meet ourselves as a stranger and fall in love with ourselves all over again. A new beginning.

We are not scared of the dark. We are scared of what is inside of it. Scientists tell us that black is the absence of light. Artists tell us that black is the presence of all colours. Colour is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive. Poetry is black ink on white paper painting pictures with words. Poetry allows the darkness to become conscious. Presence. If darkness is the absence of light, then ego is the absence of awareness. Without self reflection there is blindness in darkness. Shadows owe their birth to light.

If everything around seems dark,
look again,
you may be the light.

Rumi

Dawn to dusk. Light and dark. All colour is still present in darkness. The light we see is our own reflected back to us by source herself. The invisible in our shadows becoming visible. We are all pilgrims on the same quest to surrender to the rhythm of love.

As we bid farewell to the longest night and welcome the slow return of the sun, let's remember all of the light within that shines brightly inside each of us, every day, bringing with it possibility and presence on the wings of the solitude, silence and stillness of dawn. Every day is a gift. We are the light. We are today!

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

Rumi

A Child on Christmas Morning

I wrote the following poem in the early morning darkness in mid October 2020. There is magic at this altar of dawn. The loyalty of light breaks through the darkness. The sacred gift of dawn unfolding all around me. I cannot go back to sleep. The light calls to me like a child on Christmas morning.

Poetry speaks loudest to me and through me in the ritualistic quiet of the sweet darkness of dawn as the sun arrives to slowly kiss the moon. Fuelled by coffee and the gratitude of a new day, the words come to find me in this harvest of Grace. Grace in my writing represents the universe, source, God, awareness, awen, awe, divine consciousness, the mysterious vital force that connects everything to everything. Spirituality. Non duality. That which unites all things in interdependence. Love!

I meet a stranger each morning in the mirror as I wake. With an open heart and a pen in hand, poetry finds me, and I create in the arms of possibility. A child on Christmas morning! Breathing deeply into the colours of dawn, all of me is whole. A presence of wonder. A body in a soul. My very essence guiding me, writing through me, and singing with me. Transcendence of self. This poem is an invitation to meet that stranger as a soul in the celebration of the gift of a new day. A new dawn. Every day is a soulstice to celebrate the light. A morning ritual.

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Morning Ritual

I awoke today
To the quiet darkness
Whispering my name
A warm ache greeting me
Like a child on Christmas morning
Calling me
To rise up
Telling me
A new day is arriving
Reminding me
That love is a choice
A choice that I create
Every fucking day
I tenderly sip a fresh cup of coffee
That dances on my lips
Romances my nostrils
I greet this new day
As a cherished gift
Thankful in gratitude
I am so alive
I sit and bless her
Surrendering to the dawn
Love swallows me whole
And as grace announces
The harvest of her presence
The flower of my life
Unfolds around me

©Jamie Millard

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In the heart of darkness
lives invisible light
That dawn breaks into colour
held possible by the night

Jamie Millard

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I believe that poetry is meant to be read out loud. Reading, writing and listening to a poem is meditative and the words create an intimate encounter with the heartfulness of presence. Like we enter into the light of dawn, we enter into a poem. Poetry is a wonderful addition to a spiritual practice as it connects us to ourselves, to others, to this world and to our spirit.

Please reach out to me if I can be of any assistance to you on your journey through your own poetic dawn into the celebration of the light. Your light! May you experience the joy of being in this festive season.

Please enjoy the audio shared at the top of this article.

Lots of Love,

Jamie