There’s no getting away from it, winter is almost here. The winter solstice on December 21st is fast approaching, and the season has certainly turned. I live on a hill, and in my first year here the wind has been the most noticeable feature of the changing season. I find it refreshing to be somewhat blown about, like it blows me clean inside.
We all experience the seasons differently, but a common theme I’m noticing is people’s instinctive desire to hunker down, cabin up, reduce activity levels and to withdraw within. This is entirely to be expected, as mammals it is the sensible thing to do. Of course our activity levels drop when there is less daytime, and more energy expended in keeping warm.
So how is it so easy to expect ourselves to just carry on as if nothing we changing? Why is it our society seems so intent on carrying on regardless, as if the seasons did not exist? Each year I find it a little more odd.
This winter, I invite you to slow down. To sit down. To walk out in nature. To look at the bare trees, the plants drawing down into their roots, cushioned beneath piles of fallen leaves. Look at the laying bare and the drawing back.
What do you need to lay bare this winter? What deeper structures may a slowing down give space to reveal? How might you re-charge yourself for the new growth of the spring to come?
We all have different ways of honouring the season, be it celebrating the solstice, focusing on Christmas, or on the New Year, or another way of marking mid-winter. Whatever it is that is meaningful for you, I hope you take what you need from it in the coming months.
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