Presence

Your December practice

In the last month of the calendar year I feel the clock ticking — it’s less of a tick, tick, tick… and more of a quick, quick, quick… Can you feel it? Time has a way of accelerating over these weeks.

Toward what? I’m never entirely sure. Is anyone? Even as we rush to cross things off ever-growing lists, set our intentions, and map out the year ahead, the only thing we know with any certainty is that there will be change and, if we’re lucky, growth. Each time I pause and step out of our collective, hurried urgency I can see this moment, and this one, as it actually is. This kind of clarity rings like a bell with the remembrance, I’m here. Why rush?

The festive season flurries on and we might take a moment, hand on heart, to remember that presence is the most timely gesture, the best gift we can give to ourselves and to each other. The present of our presence, it’s in the space between our moments, the glimmers between the ticks. I’m here. Have my attention, my light, my love. It’s an offering that connects on a cellular level, we feel it deeply in our bodies. What else could we possibly give or recieve? These are the twinkling lights to string and light up — the glow to gather and bask in.

Be real with yourself here, in the darkest time of year. Reach for comforts that truly feel right. Quiet nights and slow conversations over the inertia of obligations and overconsumption. Load instead fleece, homemade chai, and steady eye contact to balance the pin pricks of frost and shortening days. Sit with yourself, your people, and the grounding weight of your own attention. Bathe and breathe and be. Gentle, radical resistances to the busyness that so easily fills our days, in December.