This Wisdom Community Equinox Pause was hosted by Wisdom Waypoints and recorded live on Zoom March 20, 2024.
In this Lenten equinox pause, we came together as a global community to work with the theme of Mothering Darkness, Mothering Light while moving through a blessed hour of global greetings, breath prayer, body prayer, chant, readings, Visio Divina, reflection, and shared silence.
Our thanks and appreciation to all who participated and contributed to this event. A special thanks to our event facilitator, Marcella Kraybill-Greggo, and readers Mel King (UK), Agnes Hermans (New Zealand), and Julia Casciola (South Africa).
About the Equinox Pause
The equinox happens twice a year, heralding the beginning of spring (northern hemisphere) and autumn (southern hemisphere), around March 19th and September 21st. We pause as the sun crosses the equator, when day and night, light and dark are of equal length (unlike a solstice which brings the longest or shortest day of the year). The equinox holds us globally, in equal measure of light and dark, day and night. The journey of the sun represents our spiritual journey, our Easter journey, from darkness to light, from death to rebirth, as in nature.
Equinox Pause Resources
Below you will find a few of the readings offered in our March 2024 Wisdom Community Equinox Pause.
“For a New Beginning” by John O’Donohue from To Bless the Space Between Us
In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
“Recipe for Falling in Love” by Julia Fehrenbacher
The truth is
if we slowed down
and got close enough
we wouldn’t be able to handle
the beauty
on this summer evening, everywhere
my eyes fall
another miracle
stares back
giant oaks spread out like gods
big-eared bunnies munching under open sky
blackberries plump on the vine
invite me to taste their almost sweet
insides. As I round the corner
I lock eyes with three deer—all of us still
and staring. With our eyes
we say—I love you. Winged ones
I cannot see sing
their end-of-the-day lullaby… read more
Prayer by Pádraig Ó Tuama
God of promises,
sometimes we wait generations
for the dawn from on high;
sometimes only years.
We wait for justice and hope and light and kindness
to mingle in the tangle of our days.
And we age while we hope.
So may we age and hope
with tenderness and truth.
Because You are tender and true
even though we sometimes wonder.
Amen.
Reflection by Henri Nouwen
Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life. It is the time during which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within us. Life is a continuing process of the death of the old and the familiar, and being reborn again into a new hope, a new trust, and a new love. The death and resurrection of Jesus therefore is not just an historical event that took place a long time ago, but an inner event that takes place in our heart whenever we are willing to be attentive to it.