🇬🇧I am in London for a few nights before spending time with family in Ireland for the holidays.
Last night, I watched the mesmerising Ben Whishaw and the graceful Lucian Msamati in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”
It is an existentialist tragicomedy that I studied in school as an actor. Seeing it after many years reminds me how profound Beckett was in influencing my word view.
For example, my aversion of idle chit chat of no substance formed through from this play. My refusal to care about the expectations of polite society, and my commitment to live in the now were also values that imprinted deep within my psyche.
In the play, the main characters Vladimir and Estragon spend their days waiting near a bleak tree for a mysterious figure named Godot, who never arrives.
Over the course of two days, they engage in habitual and nonsensical banter, and absolutely nothing happens for them. The audience laughed at their absurd repartee because of awfully true it reflected upon the mundanity of how we behave.
Vladimir and Estragon both suffer from a kind of amnesia, constantly forgetting what they were saying. Afraid to pave their own way forward, they wait idly all day in the hopes that Godot will come and save them from this meaningless existence.
🪷In Vajrayana Buddhism, this is the equivalence of being stuck in the bardo realms – a kind of limbo. In the scriptures, this could actually be being stuck in ghost realms between reincarnations. It can also refer to being stuck between two states of being – like a brain damaged patient in a vegetative state, or someone trapped in their own cycle of fears that keep them on a hamster wheel of perpetuating the same meaningless actions without end.
This play raises the question: Who do we surround ourselves with that bind us in a state of idle chit chat and purposeless nothingness?
What kind of walls do we erect around ourselves to keep us in ‘safety patterns’ that actually limit us and take us nowhere new?
By not daring and dreaming big, do we realise squander our precious life away?
🌹Anyone who is on a spiritual journey can relate to the bleakness of Beckett’s plays and is driven to break out of being caged in the liminal states of meaninglessness.
We are inspired to find meaning, and to create it where there is none – be that in art or in the connections we create around us.
We are inspired to free ourselves from the bondage of inaction and fear that imprisoned us from society, and those very same fears that were later enforced by us.
We are inspired to live fully and unapologetically right NOW.
🌗Today marks the Solstice, a powerful time that indigenous cultures around the world have long honoured.
🌕In the Northern hemisphere, as the longest night of the year, the solstice is about turning inwards to reflect and contemplate on past actions taken. It is a season to reevaluate and recalibrate during these long dark nights in preparation for a reawakening in spring.
🌑In the Southern hemisphere, as the longest day of the year, the solstice is about renewal and rebirth. It is a day of honouring the light of the sun as the spark that guides us to actualising new dreams on the path ahead.
Before I return to the festive summer light of Australia, I am shrouded in the long dark nights of the North. And so, I am pulled into a state of contemplation, before returning to a state of inspired creation. In the same vein, I also invite you to invoke the reflective AND celebratory qualities of the Solstice.
🪻If you reflect on this year, in what ways did your thoughts, words and actions support the values you are trying to live?
🌻And looking ahead, what are you finally going to dare to dream in 2025?
Traditionally, on this day, in my culture, we gathering and eat glutinous rice balls shaped like the moon – Mother Moon who reminded us of our inner light through the long dark nights.
As a modern practice that adapts from the ancients, perhaps find some alone time to light a candle and free write in your journal using the prompts I offered above. Use any and all of them, and take it where you will. Let your words unfold on paper as a devotion to your constant evolution.
The world on a global scale is only going to become more wild and frenetic, as is the way of the world for time immemorial. So, let these words you commit to yourself be like an offering to your Higher Self. Let them serve as a reminder to your Future Self who you really are and to commit to conscious action over fear.
Amidst all the last minute shopping, large family gatherings, or perhaps a more solitary celebration, remember this has historically been a period for renewal and rebirth, in whatever form it takes.
However and wherever you are celebrating, may the Spirit of this time, bring you courageous contemplation, at least an ounce of joy, and a remembrance to be your own saviour on the road ahead.
🫶🎄✌️A Ho ho ho and a ha ha ha into an even more purposeful and meaningful you in 2025,
Johnson
