{"id":1020,"date":"2014-01-02T17:35:13","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T21:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2014-01-02T17:37:50","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T21:37:50","slug":"womens-christmas-the-shimmering-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/womens-christmas-the-shimmering-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Christmas: The Shimmering Hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nImage: Wise Women Also Came<\/em> \u00a9 Jan Richardson<\/p>\n

In some parts of the world, Epiphany (January 6, which brings the Christmas season to a close) is celebrated as Women’s Christmas. Originating in Ireland, where it is known as Nollaig na mBan<\/em>, Women’s Christmas began as a day when the women, who often carried the domestic responsibilities all year, took Epiphany as an occasion to enjoy a break and celebrate together at the end of the holidays.<\/p>\n

Whether your domestic duties are many or few, Women\u2019s Christmas is a good time to pause and take a break from whatever has kept you busy and hurried in the past weeks or months. As the Christmas season comes to a close, this is an occasion both to celebrate with friends and also to spend time in reflection before diving into the responsibilities of this new year.<\/p>\n

It’s become something of a tradition for me to create a retreat that you can use for Women’s Christmas\u2014or anytime you’re in need of a space of reflection. This year’s retreat is titled “The Shimmering Hours,” and our theme for this one is time<\/em>. Inspired in part by my own questions about time (How will I enter time? What do I do with my time? In the press of each day, how will I make choices that allow me to feel some freedom about time\u2014that it is spacious, that I will have enough?), the retreat offers an invitation for you to engage your own questions about how you move through your days.<\/p>\n

The retreat is very flexible, easily adaptable to your own purposes. You can do the retreat anytime you wish, by yourself or with friends near or far. It includes an introduction with some thoughts about how you might use these reflections.<\/p>\n

Clicking the link below will take you to a page on this Sanctuary of Women site where you can download the retreat as a PDF file. There’s no cost; think of it as my Women’s Christmas gift to you! You’re also welcome to make a donation in support of the retreat; donations will be shared with the A21 Campaign (thea21campaign.org<\/a>), which is devoted to ending\u00a0human traffi\u001ecking and providing sanctuary and healing for those rescued from slavery.<\/p>\n

Download the Women’s Christmas Retreat<\/a><\/h3>\n

You are welcome to make copies of the retreat to share with friends. I’d be delighted for you to spread the word about the retreat by sharing this blog post; you can use any of the social media icons at the bottom of this post or simply forward the link to others.<\/p>\n

I’ve also written a new Women’s Christmas blessing for you. As we celebrate the day and enter into the year ahead, may you have time enough, and may Christ our Light meet you in every moment. Merry Women’s Christmas!<\/p>\n

The Shimmering Hours<\/strong>
\n A Blessing for Women\u2019s Christmas<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

There is so much
\nI want to say,
\nas if the saying
\ncould prepare you
\nfor this path,
\nas if there were anything
\nI could offer
\nthat would make your way
\nless circuitous,
\nmore smooth.<\/p>\n

Once you step out
\nyou will see for yourself
\nhow nothing could have
\nmade you ready for this road
\nthat will take you
\nfrom what you know now
\nto what you cannot perceive
\nexcept, perhaps,
\nin your dreaming
\nor as it gives a glimpse
\nin prayer.<\/p>\n

But I can tell you
\nthis journey is not
\nabout miles.
\nIt is not about how far
\nyou can walk
\nor how fast.<\/p>\n

It is about what you will do
\nwith this moment, this star
\nthat blazes in your sky
\nthough no one else
\nmight see.<\/p>\n

So open your heart
\nto these shimmering hours
\nby which your path
\nis made.<\/p>\n

Open your eyes
\nto the light that shines
\non what you will need
\nto see.<\/p>\n

Open your hands
\nto those who go with you,
\nthose seen
\nand those known only
\nby their blessing, their benediction
\nof the road that is
\nyour own.<\/p>\n

[The Wise Women Also Came<\/em> image is \u00a9 Jan L. Richardson from the book Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas<\/em><\/a>. To use this image, please visit this page<\/a> at Jan Richardson Images.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image: Wise Women Also Came \u00a9 Jan Richardson In some parts of the world, Epiphany (January 6, which brings the Christmas season to a close) is celebrated as Women’s Christmas. Originating in Ireland, where it is known as Nollaig na mBan, Women’s Christmas began as a day when the women, who often carried the domestic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8,6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-blessings","category-christmas","category-sacred-time"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p190Xv-gs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1036,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}