Light and learning

"For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned it is the season of the harvest.” ~ the Talmud

Every morning and evening as I head to and from work here at Royal Roads, the daylight continues to wane. Scowling grey skies and puddles of wet are the landscape now. Teasing bouts of sunshine and illuminated clouds of boundless white brink overhead only to remember their place and quickly tuck themselves back into the wings of autumn's final act.

Next week the light returns and winter begins. It's an odd paradox in our Gregorian calendar. We somehow think of winter solstice as an end to the bleakness of winter as the days slowly grow under the sun's reign, yet it is a heralding to winter's arrival and its place in our lives.

Moving from California to Canada nearly five years ago, I have come to love the deep abiding embrace of winter's silent gifts. Circadian rhythm awakened in me like vestiges of an ancient dance my body longed to remember. Winter offers its gentle permission for me to slow down at work, at home, and in all of life. In these coming weeks the calls of rest and inward turning will beckon from books and friends in warm cafes, from longer periods of meditation and tiny white lights cascading over the fireplace. It's a time for reflection and learning, of a harvest within us painting the light of all we are onto the brilliant canvas of the world.

We hope you'll spend this winter time with those dear to you and with yourself, awakening to the gifts unfolding inside and celebrating the light, wherever you may find it.

Join us in 2013 for classes that call to your creativity, your leadership, and our connection to each other.
 
Happy holidays from all of us in Continuing Studies.

Tess Wixted
Program Associate

Visit us at cstudies.royalroads.ca.