It’s the second day of December.  At 5:00 in the morning, it’s still dark and I’m out with the stars.  I reflect on the number of people I know who’ve passed away this year and looking up at the stars lighting the sky, I feel peace.  It’s a month where people move even more deeply within as we light candles and come together to celebrate another year, a year of transformation, a celebration and honoring of the cycles of birth, growth, learning, and death.  

As Annie Dillard writes:

Living, you stand under a waterfall. You leave the sleeping shore deliberately; you shed your dusty clothes, pick your barefoot way over the high, slippery rocks, hold your breath, choose your footing, and step into the waterfall.