The Table of Healing and Transformation

Take your seat at the table of healing and transformation.

-Dr. Larry Ward-

This quote began my post on “Habitual Gratitude” one year ago today. A reflection on darkness and light, seasonally and introspectively. As I re-read it this morning, I know I have gained both the grace of healing and the wisdom of transformation since I wrote the original post.

Grace and wisdom are spacious words, but they reveal themselves in the small pauses, the tiny moments, the catch of a healthier emotion or thought.

Here is the rest of last year’s post. I hope it offers you a moment of reflection, an acknowledgment of your own continued healing and transformation. When we see our own self changing productively, we bring that nurturing change to others and the world around us. We need all we can get. Our world needs all it can get.

Everyone has a place at this table. Not everyone takes their seat. It can be unappetizing work at times, but nothing nourishes the human spirit as well. Yesterday was the winter solstice. The darkest day in the Northern Hemisphere. Darkness is already giving way to more light.

Do I feel this in my own life? Where there is darkness, am I shining the light of forgiveness? The darkness I face isn't nearly as far-reaching as it used to be. There has already been so much healing and transformation over the course of my 56 years of living.

If we are honest though, we each have work to do at this table. Does the holiday season present you with opportunities and time to give to some of this work? Maybe there is a person you resent, a circumstance that seems unforgiving. Is it weighing you down? Darkening the horizon of this new day? Consider what you can do.

Most often it is about letting go, shifting expectations, releasing negative emotions. For me, that is getting out of my own head and heart and my particular take on things. Sometimes I talk to others, or go within to meditate, and always for me the best healing happens when I let my Higher Power sit next to me.

Less is more at this table. Less resentment, fear, worry, control, regret. More acceptance, patience, peace.

The holiday season itself has always been a pretty joyful time in my life. There is so much I enjoy about it, with family and friends. But the darkness, the cold, the year-end reflecting all present me with the chance to consider where I could welcome more healing, where I could focus more energy to aid in my own growth and transformation.

Take a seat. It's a good start.