Tis the season for deep rest and awaiting the light.

It has been a long and difficult year for many of us. At the very most, you have experienced disaster, tragedy, grief and fear. At the very least, you have had a year of opening and expanding, and moving from old self into a new understanding of self.

We are literally shedding our old skins and stepping into new ways of being, individually and collectively, as the Age of Aquarius, the Age of Enlightenment, becomes apparent in our lives.

As the Shift continues to open our hearts and our consciousness, there is no place for mass consumerism, mass consumption.  There’s no place for negative relationships, or ways of being that make you unhappy, miserable or stressed. There is absolutely no place for violence, hatred, intolerance or shame.

On this day of Solstice, some things to consider:

• Let go of everything that doesn’t serve you.
• Let go of everything that is not authentic or holds true meaning for you.
• Let go of anything that does not reflect you as Soul, Divine being.

You are allowed to do this. In fact, you are invited in a way that many of you many never again experience in your lifetime.

In fact, during this Age of Enlightenment, you are not just invited, but you are requested by the Universe to step into the consciousness of who you truly are as Soul.

Today, on winter Solstice, December 21, 2012, I invite you to:

• Mediate, pray and contemplate.
• Rest, deeply.
• Light candles, or do another ritual, that symbolizes the shift of the old you, into the new Self emerging.
• Gather with kindred beings, souls in conscious reflection of this day and this time.

It is the Solstice, it is the Shift. It is a day to understand that this is your life. You are not required to waste it on things that you are no longer aligned with.  Let go of what is past. Step into the light of who you really are. Step into the light of what we truly can be as individuals, as community, as collective soul, as One.

Much love,
SARA

Thanksgiving can be a stressful holiday—especially if you're the one in charge of shopping for food, cooking complicated recipes and cleaning up after a big meal. Even if those aren't your tasks, the double whammy of Over Indulgence in food, alcohol and football and Over Exposure to family members you don't normally spend time with...

Why do we do it this way?

Back in the day, the pilgrims were pretty happy to just BE ALIVE on this day... they'd survived the trip and their first year. How that translates into a gluttony of turkey, pie, football, Black Friday, shopping craziness and more... I'm not quite sure.

In any case, regardless of what plans and obligations you've already agreed to, I invite you to find a spot of joy that fills YOU. I invite you to TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR OWN THANKSGIVING.

This might mean skipping traditional festivities and instead:

• Go to a good move—an uplifting movie, an interesting movie.

• Read a book that you LOVE

• Skip the foods you know will make you feel sick...

• Take a long lovely walk in nature

• Organize a friendly game of touch football in the park. Get as muddy as possible. Don't keep score.

• If the family dysfunction gets too much, either pass on it entirely, or step outside for a breath of air

• Don't buy ONE SINGLE THING all weekend. No Black Friday. Just... Let...It... Go.

• Play cards or a board game. Let someone else win.

• Do a simply craft, something you might have done when you were five, or six...

• Pray, meditate, go to a spiritual service.
 
* Sing, dance, play music.

• Stay up to watch the stars in the night sky

• Make a timeline of your life, and give thanks for every single thing you can recall: the good, the bad, the ALL of it. Be in awe, of what your life has been up until this moment.

• Be very, very grateful you don't have to wear Pilgrim clothes in your daily life, unless of course you like that sort of thing... and then of course proceed in joy!

This long, luscious weekend does not have to be a frenzy of shopping , overeating, overdrinking and family dysfunction. Those are not conscious choices. You can choose a different way, and you will feel so much better for doing so.

Gratitude, for the good, the bad, the ALL of your life, is a lesson and a teaching of the SHIFT. Once you accept everything as a Soul experience, your reality begins to change. Take charge of your own Thanksgiving... let your new reality reflect this intention.

This is a very personal posting for me. This October, I was diagnosed with melanoma, which is one of the most dangerous cancers.  It was a very serious diagnosis, and there were not many options.

It was a surreal experience to sit in my surgeon’s office at Salem Hospital, hearing words like "mortality rate" and "aggressive" and "serious"... I kept wondering, who is he talking to?

Surely he was not talking to not me, with my lovely life: my family, my partner, my work. Surely, after all I had been through,  this could not be ME he was talking to about.

But he was.

As many of you know, it hasn't been an easy summer or fall: my mother nearly died and was in hospital for six weeks this summer, and then my daughter had an extensive surgery for scoliosis. These were the reasons I did not have that tiny mole on my should removed earlier—I was taking care of others.

However, there is no immunity to life.

As souls, we are here to experience ALL of it, whether this means pain, illness, disaster such as Hurricane Sandy, financial malaise, and so on.

We are indeed in the Shift toward conscious enlightenment, and the Universe will do whatever it needs to bring you—and me—to the next level.

The good news is: after two surgeries in the last two weeks, I am now CLEAR of cancer. It's a pretty big miracle. But I had to let go of everything, of all my attachments, during the process.

Right now, I’m recovering: I can’t use my right arm very well yet. I get tired very easily. My mind is in post anesthesia “brain fog.”

Emotionally, I’m a bit numb:  After the roller coaster I’ve been on lately,  the verdict  of “you will live” seems almost ludicrous. 

Who knows how long we’ll live, really? No one.

This journey has taken me through  fear, pain, gratitude, surrender and finally brought me to a place of deep new understanding — it’s something I'm still integrating and will be teaching and writing about once I get a handle on it all.

I want to thank everyone who has been so extremely helpful and supportive during this time—those of you who knew about this have been amazing to me. Thank you.

In the meantime: We are most definitely in the Shift. You, me, all of us.

None of us is immune to our life: the good, the bad, the ALL of it.

Open your hearts, and plan on experiencing it.

Much love,
SARA