In this small West Coast community the residents have a passion for simplicity, for keeping life close yet living with an open heart, protecting this earth we have been given, and creating events that bring all the generations together. The famous Gumboot Café is the venue for gathering to chat, where artists showcase their work, great fresh bread is made and sold, funky creative foods are on the menu, and families gather to tap their feet to local musicians playing. It is also a community that has been creating rituals to bring the everyone together. One of these traditions takes place every New Year’s Day at dusk - sending little homemade boats out to sea, candles burning in them, carrying the wishes of the sender. This is a tradition my husband, a long time resident here, has introduced me to.
On New Years Day when he said he had to build the boat I wondered what he was talking about until he took out a small piece of wood, brought in his saw and began cutting something at the back door! Ah yes, the little wooden boat that needed to be made, candles to be placed in it, and a wax paper wind protector all round it. Around 4:30 in the afternoon when the day was fading we put on our warm clothes, our gum boots and placed our flashlights in our pockets and headed down to the edge of the sea. At the pier grown men were carrying their craft, children carried theirs, and one family brought wood to light a big fire on the beach. Soon, as light faded, the boats were placed in the water to set sail with their little candles flickering. Before long all you could see with a faint silhouette of the home made boat and the little inner light rising and falling to the rhythm of the water.
To some this is a wish for the future that is set free, sent out and they wait for it to return to them. For others it is just a fun event that happens at the beginning of every year. Yet for me, as I stood in the damp cold evening, I thought of the need to let go of things held within that are no longer needed. To make space within for new growth, shift old ways and make way for others, and to open the heart and let the wind of the Spirit stir up a deeper part of my being. The candles in each boat spoke to me of the Light that waits so patiently for me to choose to let go, to set free, and to open more to staying very present.
There at the edge of the sea, at the beginning of 2009, as greetings and conversation flowed with members of the community, came the whisper of the Spirit that this year, this next 12 months is about being present, staying here, letting dreams be held loosely. Every year comes in with its own theme and this one held me in the moment, reminding me to embrace each moment, and let that simple truth carry rich and passionate life for me, from me, within me.
3 comments:
i LOVE this idea Stephanie - and want to incorporate it into our community here. Thank you!!
It would be so fun if you started this tradition so it happens on the east coast and the west coast of our country! David has so much fun making his little boat and then all the guys compare their work, children come with so much excitement at what they have created, women create their own beautiful boats and this year I think we had about 30 little boats go in and 5 made it out of the mouth of the creek into the open water and in the dark you could see them going out with the tide. It is a beautiful gathering of this community.
How beautiful a communal act!
Post a Comment