Standing in the Light: Lessons from the Summer Solstice

Good morning and welcome to Tuesday Talks at 10:30 recap. This usually follows the live on Facebook. This week I was not able to go live due to being in an accident. I am ok, my Jeep is not.

Tuesday Talks at 10:30 is a place that was created several years ago. It is meant to be a safe space to explore your spiritual path. We touch upon many subjects, from grief to connecting to spirit and our higher selves. We discuss grief, spiritual paths, mediumship, and so much more. Whether you are live or on replay or reading the blog, you have arrived at the exact moment you were meant to be here. Welcome back all returning connection tribe and if this is your 1st time here, welcome to the connecting family, I am so glad you found us.

I’m Evidential Medium, Spiritual Healer, Author, Retreat Facilitator Stacey Niedentohl. I wear many woo-woo hats, and my passion is to meet you where you are in your journey of healing and growing.

For the last few months, we have been centered around monthly themes. A guideline to help walk into or back to ourselves in a more peaceful way. June’s focus is Ligh, Joy, and Inner Child Healing. We are focused around the summer energies of the Summer Solstice.

I’m Evidential Medium, Spiritual Healer, Author, Retreat Facilitator Stacey Niedentohl. I wear many woo-woo hats, and my passion is to meet you where you are in your journey of healing and growing.

Sunday marked the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. I couldn’t pass up speaking about Summer Solstice and what it represents and brings in.

Summer Solstice is the longest day and shortest night of the year. It occurs when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. Summer Solstice has been celebrated for thousands of years across many cultures. A time associated with abundance, fertility, growth, and gratitude.

For thousands of years, people have gathered to honor this moment, not because the sun suddenly became powerful, but because we can see its fullness most clearly.

I believe that’s what the Solstice asks of us. Not to become brighter. But to notice the light that has been a part of us. So many of us spend our lives trying to become something.

A better version….A healed version.…A stronger version.

But nature doesn’t spend its time trying to become. Nature simply expresses what it already is. And the Summer Solstice reminds us to do the same.

Ancient people understood something we’ve forgotten. The solstice wasn’t just about the sun in the sky. It was about recognizing the light within ourselves.

I’d like to explain it using three metaphors. I feel metaphors give a visual as you continue on your path.

When I think about the solstice, it reminds me of a lighthouse. A lighthouse has one job. To shine. It doesn’t chase ships. It doesn’t leave its foundation. It doesn’t run up and down the shoreline screaming: “Look at me! Come over here!” It simply stands in its truth. Steady. Consistent. Present. And because it shines, those who need its light find their way. What a great way to envision your path. Yet so many of us live differently. We chase approval, validation, understanding. And we chase people who cannot see our worth. And somewhere in that chasing, we stop tending our own light.

The lighthouse teaches us something beautiful: Your purpose is not to convince anyone. Your purpose is to shine your light as brightly as possible. Even when it’s uncomfortable. Because shining means being seen. It means allowing your gifts, your abilities, your voice, your truth, and even your imperfections to be visible. You allow yourself to be vulnerable.

Recap: The lighthouse teaches us about presence and authenticity. It doesn’t chase. It doesn’t convince. It doesn’t compare. It simply stands where it was built and shines.

Many of us exhaust ourselves trying to be seen, understood, appreciated, or chosen. The lighthouse symbolizes that our work is not to chase the ships. Our work is to tend the light through self-expression, spiritual awakening, trusting your path, releasing the need for validation.

Think for a minute: “Where in your life have you been chasing ships instead of tending your light?”

The Solstice asks:

Where have you been chasing ships instead of tending your light?

But there is another lesson hidden within light. Imagine sunlight streaming through a cathedral window. The light itself is pure. It shows up and shines, yet as it passes through stained glass, it becomes blue, red, green, and gold. The light is the same. The expression is different.

I think this is true of Spirit as well humanity. The same divine light moves through each of us. But it expresses itself differently. We have a different understanding in different moments of our life. Our paths are all unique to us. Some people heal. Some teach. Some nurture. Some create. Some listen. Some inspire. Sometimes without even realizing it.

Yet we spend so much time comparing ourselves to one another. We look at someone else’s window and think: “I should be more like that.” “I wish I had that ability.” “I wish my path looked like theirs.” But the purpose of a stained-glass window is not to become another window or to pull the shade down. Its purpose is to reveal the beauty of its own design. To express your light in your own special way.

Recap: The cathedral window symbolizes expressing the light. The stained-glass window teaches us something different. The light itself is the same. Yet every window reveals it differently. Red. Blue. Gold. Green.

The purpose of the window is not to become another color. Its purpose is to allow the light to shine through its unique design.

This becomes spiritual gifts, individuality, purpose, comparison.

“The light that moves through me is the same light that moves through you.” What differs is the pattern through which it shines.

The Solstice asks:

How does your light wish to shine through you? Not through someone else. Through you.

And then there is the kaleidoscope. Perhaps my favorite teacher of all. When you look through a kaleidoscope, the pieces are always the same, some are broken but fall into beautiful designs. Nothing is added. Nothing is removed. And yet with every turn, a new pattern emerges.

I like to think life works this way. The pieces remain. The experiences change. The perspective shifts. (When your perspective changes, the outcome becomes different) When we lose someone we love, the pattern changes. When we heal, the pattern changes. Outwardly we are the same, but inwardly we have shifted.

When we awaken spiritually, the pattern changes. When we finally find our voice, the pattern changes. But the pieces are still us.

Sometimes people come to me after loss and say: “I don’t even recognize my life anymore.” And I understand that feeling. Grief rearranges us. (we change) Healing rearranges us. (we think differently) Love rearranges us. (we feel differently) Spirit rearranges us (we understand differently). The pieces remain. The pattern becomes something new. The challenge is that we often resist the turning. We want the old pattern. The familiar pattern. The comfortable pattern. Yet growth asks us to trust what is emerging. Are you resisting the turn?

Recap: The kaleidoscope symbolizes transformation through experience.

A kaleidoscope contains the same pieces. Nothing new is added. Nothing is taken away. Yet with every turn, the image changes. The pieces remain. The perspective shifts. That’s spiritual growth. That’s healing. That’s grief. That’s awakening.

“We often think transformation means becoming someone new. But perhaps transformation is simply seeing the same pieces of ourselves arranged in a new way.”

This is especially powerful for people navigating loss. Grief changes the pattern. Awakening changes the pattern. Healing changes the pattern. The pieces are still us.

The Solstice asks:

Can you honor the pattern that brought you here while remaining open to the one that is still unfolding?

All three metaphors are different but work together. Here is how: The lighthouse teaches us to tend our light. The cathedral window teaches us to express it uniquely. The kaleidoscope teaches us to trust its transformations. Maybe that is what summer solstice is really about. Not becoming someone new. Not fixing what is broken. Not chasing what is missing. But standing long enough in the light to recognize what has been there all along. Your strength. Your wisdom. Your resilience. Your spirit.

The Lighthouse Symbolizes: Trusting your purpose

“The lighthouse does not chase the ships. It trusts that its light is enough.”

Mantra:

I do not need to chase what is meant for me. I simply tend my light and trust its reach.

My purpose is not to convince. My purpose is to shine.

The Cathedral Window Symbolizes: Authentic self-expression

“The light is the same. The beauty lies in how it shines through you.”

Mantra:

I honor the unique pattern through which Spirit expresses itself as me.

I was not created to be a copy. I was created to be a window

The Kaleidoscope Symbolizes: Transformation and trust

“Nothing is missing. The pieces are simply arranging themselves into a new pattern.”

Mantra:

I trust the turning. I trust the unfolding. I trust the new pattern emerging in my life.

The pieces remain. The perspective changes.

As you move through the rest of this day, I invite you to ask yourself three questions:

Where am I being called to shine more brightly? What makes my light uniquely mine? And what new pattern is trying to emerge in my life? Because the Summer Solstice is not a celebration of perfection. It is a celebration of illumination.

The sun has reached its highest point. And maybe it is inviting us to do the same. To stop hiding. To stop comparing. To stop resisting the turning of the kaleidoscope.

And instead…to trust the light. Here are two versions to meditate on:

I tend my light like the lighthouse.
I express it like the cathedral window.

I trust its unfolding like the kaleidoscope.’

May I stand steady in my light,
allow it to shine through my unique design,
and trust the beautiful pattern still emerging.

May I stand steady like the lighthouse,
 remembering that my purpose is not to chase, but to shine.

May I honor the cathedral window within me,
 allowing Spirit to move through the colors of my own unique design.

May I trust the turning of the kaleidoscope,
 knowing that even when the pattern changes, nothing essential is lost.

And may I welcome this season of light,
 not as a call to become more,
 but as an invitation to see more clearly who I have always been.

Not as a call to become more, but as an invitation to see more clearly who I have always been.

These visual metaphors echo the solstice itself. The sun is not becoming brighter on this day. It is simply revealing its fullness. And perhaps that is what the season asks of us as well.

I pray your light is tended to and you see your unique design even through the turns. Shine your light and live a life you love, and love the life you live.

Happy Summer Solstice.

Blessings,

Stacey

If you are interested in scheduling a reading, you can go to www.connectingtospiritwithstacey.com and click on the Book a Reading button. If you have any questions while trying to schedule, please email me at connectingtospiritwithstacey@gmail.com

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