The Between Places

This weekend I trekked to the V Bar V Ranch for Summer Solstice.  This little-known site, in the Verde Valley near Sedona, is one of the largest  and best preserved petroglyphs in Arizona. 
 
But I go specifically on the morning of the longest day of the  year. 

The sun rises over the top of the rock wall, and an annual  miracle occurs. Bands of light pass between two rocks and illuminate specific  points in the figures permanently etched in the stone. The petroglyph art is  positioned so that when the sunlight hits a specific line carved in the rock, it  coincides with the start of the planting season. For the Sinagua Indians living  in this arid land nearly a thousand years ago, this was their  calendar.

  The growing season  was tricky. Plant too soon and the corn crop would shrivel and dry before the  monsoons. Plant too late and the kernels would not have time to  ripen.

 Timing was everything.

 My visit to V Bar V on the day of equal light and dark reminds  me to keep a balance in my own life. To resist wasting my time auditioning for  others: parents, teachers, employers, lovers, strangers, and friends. To stay  true to myself and to Nature.

 I yearn to balance dark and light, the way the earth balances  day and night. The shadow has its reasons and seasons, and brings us important  lessons to learn. We must know when we are way out of balance, have had enough,  are stagnated, or need emotional rescue of a practical nature. 
 
Maybe you are oriented on your path by a set of rules you didn’t  make. Or maybe you coast along because it’s so difficult to change course,  regardless of what strongly held beliefs that course is  violating.

 Can you can recall a moment when you stood at a crossroads, a  point where opposites met and a choice was required: dark or light, joy or  sorrow, right or wrong, be silent or speak out. Fight or flee. Do--or don’t do. 
 
According to Goddess Mother Nature, we are now standing at one  of those crossroads. Next week, the world will literally begin filling with  darkness, as the wheel turns toward winter. Today we stand at the world’s still  center and survey which path to choose.

  The Sinaguas had their map, revealed to them at the proper  time. Like the ancients, I don’t look for paths, they will seek me out. That’s  what is so exhilarating about these in-between days. They are the creative nexus  at which vision and craft come together. 
 
Feel your power! Create. Let your poetry, song, art, new love or  inspiration uncoil from its hidden domain and fill your core. 
 
The between places are not horrible or frightening. They are  thresholds for awakening, if the soul is alert and watchful for omens of change. 
 
And yes, timing is important.

 So look in the mirror. Meet the eyes you see there directly,  because they belong to the only person in this world you can truly change.   Be attentive to the thresholds and boundaries of your life—the places where  metamorphosis occurs—and find the lines you should erase and  re-draw.

 How will you transform in the remaining  year?