THiNKSPOT
6210 Lowville Park Rd L7P 0A8 Burlington, ON, Canada

Magical. Connected. Real. Three words to describe the Winter Solstice celebration today at ThinkSpot. Will write more tomorrow, yet for now wanted to share the words below of Cathy Cole, who as an amazing trooper showed up at 4:50am along with Kune Hua, and Anthony DiDomenico, and Darcie Pytel at 6AM; to experience the silent intimacy as we began creating light through fire and candles in the morning darkness, and watched the sky ever so slowly turn to grey from black. ...Still in awe of the day and look forward to sharing more tomorrow. Much love Debra From Cathy Cole Winter Solstice Celebration 2020 at Thinkspot in Lowville was ushered in by an absolutely beautiful December morning. Out of the dark comes the light. I woke at 4, got dressed, walked down the lane, over the bridge and around the corner and I arrived at 5. I was in time to observe the lighting of the fire that helped to welcome the dawn of the shortest day of the year. It is also fitting to acknowledge that the shortest day of the year also means the beginning of longer days ahead. We often forget to remember that there are reasons for seasonal changes. Instead of wishing them gone, perhaps we can try to welcome the changes and accept their significance on our planet earth. But I digress. Where was I? The fire was a place to pay my respects to my fellow human beings, to honour those who suffer, to let go of something I grieved. By throwing a thing, or things, of our choosing onto the fire, we observe them burn, we see the ashes rise and experience a symbolic rebirth and release. Beautiful little tea lights were placed lovingly on a spiral of cedar boughs and lit its path as the arc tightened and gracefully wound its way to the centre stone in the sculpture garden...where we came face to face with our own reflection in a mirror. Who are we anyway? A somber pause allowed self reflection for a few minutes and then a slow return back to the fire let this percolate. We then prepared for our sunrise walk through Lowville Park. We left, we greeted the dawn, we felt kinship with the few who came to share the early morning and we returned again to embrace the full light of day in the garden. How different it now looked on the surface, but I knew it was all one and the same - in the dark and in the light - because I was there. I cast my gaze across the day lit garden for final few moments. And then I walked home to greet my own day - and my dogs who had clearly wondered where I had been going so early in the morning. Thank you to Debra for always making it right. Thinking too, of my friend Elaine, who loved all the solstice celebrations and who left us too soon... we really do have much to be grateful for...

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The Great Real-isation

hello all - we are taking a break from our normal last-Sunday-morning-of-the-month Mindful Meditation with Greg Klym. Greg has a number of mindfulness offerings through-out the month that you can catch on his FB page. Hope everyone is staying mindfully well and able to navigate this period of everything being turned around and discombobulating (always loved that word). Whenever I feel discombobulated, I like to think about six months from now looking back at myself now, and what would that future self say to me now....??? A bit of a mindbender... and before I know it.... not really sure what I was out-of-sorts about. Take care Debra