About the Author: Tanya Markul

Rebelle Society is an online hub reporting ideas and acts of creative rebellion and celebrating the Art of Being Alive. It’s a virtual country with no borders — except those imposed by the mind — and all you need to circulate freely through its pages is the passport of imagination. This is issued to you at birth but it is eventually stolen from you by the Status Quo’s secret agents. They are the terrible, soul-killing monsters camouflaged in every closet of your life. They can easily shift shapes and pass for family, circumstances, work, culture or education. They can even pass for your own voice if you distract your heart from beating. Wherever you are on the Map Back to You, we’d like to add our mojo to your salsa. The Scratchy Side of the Matchbox. We don’t believe in a stagnant or given reality. The events, encounters, actions, discoveries, learning, adventures, relationships and feelings that we experience on a daily basis are unspeakable, until we bring them into existence with our perception. We give our life its color and its voice, we shout our songs over the rooftops of the world. We say what goes and what stays, we only get one shot at life and we would like to make it count. Just like us, reality is dynamic, it can’t be measured and it is related to everything and everyone in intricate ways, beyond our wildest imagination. It includes you, me and everyone we’ve ever known. It extends to our ecosystem and all other sentient beings, plants and natural phenomena, starting in our own hearts and reaching to the most distant galaxies, echoing the past and dancing with future. The only way to live fully is by integrating, accepting and finally using every bit of us. In our sad joy and beautiful universe, nothing and no one is wasted. Everything is recycled, even the ugliness. As sensitive, intelligent creatures, it is our duty and delight to embrace ourselves fully, to gather all our courage and paint our lives with our own homemade, human and imperfect brush on the universal canvas. We’re rebels with a cause: that of bringing our bits and pieces together into a more inclusive, life-giving collage. Creativity is our pencil. Beauty is the ink. We are innate designers of reality. Rebelling against a divided, unquestionable status quo is our first step into wholeness.
  • By Published On: December 29, 2014

    In the northern hemisphere, this solstice occurs during what is typically the coldest season of the year. Throughout history winter has been regarded as the season of hibernation, stillness, melancholy, famine, dormancy, darkness and cold. The symbolism of the winter solstice to-date represents the coming of lighter days and potentially elevated optimism, energy and hope.