St. George Meditation Magazine

A magazine sounds like a big project for a small group of volunteers. It started as a smaller one: an intention to make a peace ripple in the great pond of consciousness - a paragraph about a hard week that got better, a question about breathing, a walk that cleared their head, a photo of the sky from a porch in Ivins. We wanted to hold peace in our hearts and broadcast it out to our local community.

So we're collecting our stories and thoughts. Four times a year, at each solstice and equinox, we put out an issue about wellness, stillness, and inner peace in the desert — essays, practices, and photographs made by the people who live and meditate here.

What's in an issue

A guided practice you can do in ten minutes, written for a particular time of day.

The sun almanac: sunrise, sunset, and our start times for the coming season, with notes on where the light lands in southern Utah.

Essays and short pieces from members on wellness, stillness, and inner peace in the desert — first drafts welcome, and someone will sit down with you to edit, if desired.

One piece of the landscape looked at slowly: an arroyo, an arch, a wash after rain.

Not polished. Just honest, and written by people who live here.

Four issues, four turning points

The magazine comes out four times a year, once at the start of each solar quarter — at the winter and summer solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes, the four points where the year's light turns.

Each issue is named for the turning point it lands on, and the sun almanac inside runs from that date to the next one.

Issue One: Winter Solstice

The first issue lands at the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, and the turning point we've been building toward since the very first meditation. If you're using the sun as a time tracker, the Winter Solstice marks the beginning of the Solar Year, our true New Year, because this is the shortest day of the year and the time when the sun starts its return.

This magazine will hold the practices and essays people sent us through the autumn, a sun almanac running from the solstice to the spring equinox, and a short piece on keeping a daily meditation through the shortest days of the year.

Free to read, digital first, with paper copies left where anyone can take one at the First Sunday Gathering and physical copies to buy on-demand.

We begin at the darkest point of the year, and watch the light come back.

How you'll get it

Digital first, free to read, and always free. If you'd rather hold paper, we'll bring copies to the First Sunday Gathering and leave them where anyone can take one.

Issue One is being written now and goes out on the morning the week before the winter solstice. If you'd like to hear when it's out, say so at a meditation or write to stgmeditation@proton.me.

Call for submissions

We're asking for pieces on wellness, stillness, and inner peace in the desert — meditation, and whatever else feeds the same quiet: movement, breath, food, sleep, hours spent outdoors, and what you're doing to observe stillness and peace in yourself or the world.

A practice you keep, a memory you've sat with, a walk you took slowly, a question you can't answer yet, all of it belongs here. Long or short, first draft or finished, we read everything and we'll work on it with you.

Send your piece to stgmeditation@proton.me. There's no submission fee and no payment, just a few volunteers who like reading what other people notice.

Pieces for the winter solstice issue are open now — the earlier you send, the more time we have to work on it with you before it goes out.

Stillness isn't something you find. It's something you allow.