Sacred Crossroads
Again this morning my reflection starts in the kitchen. It’s an easy and joyful place to be thankful for food and for birdsong, as usual, and for the stunning sunrise out the east window.
But for me these last days of November are also a time of reflection for reasons both ordinary and special.This is a season when life and death are both in sharp focus, as are sadness and thankfulness. These weeks contain my birthday, my sister’s birthday, and my husband’s death day. It is also the death season of three beloved pets and the birth season of a beloved child. This month I am often at the table with my family and we are all joking and feasting, telling stories, and brimming over with love and memories, sorrow and hopefulness.
I think of November as a sacred crossroads, one of the times where the past and the future intersect with the known and the hidden, the hoped for, the regretted and the feared. And that place where all the paths overlap is the present, the sacred moment of Right Now. These days feel like a hill from which I can see in all directions as I turn and turn again to regain perspective and get centered and calm.
Yes the sorrows are deep and cutting and yes also new love and long friendship are true and healing joys. Yes the growing season is past and yes also the resting season is welcome.
Yes we will miss fresh green and red garden vegetables and yes also it’s a good time for pumpkins and persimmons.Then and now and yet to be are all present and flowing together in this moment. Actions, plans and things never imagined hold each other in tension to create the dance that is our lives. This season, this very day, is a sacred crossroads.
Stand quietly at the center of your crossroads for a few moments and wait. Wait for the voice of wisdom to become audible. The God of life and eternity, of earth and seas and sky is already beside you, in you, above and below you, all around you. Hawk’s cry at sunset, pouring rain, gentle morning breeze, loss and love--all is sacred.
Be present to your life.
Give thanks.
Eileen Terry is a member of Celtic Way's Board of Directors.
