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Posts from the ‘Winter’ Category

Feb 2

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February Spring

“Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring?”― Neltje Blanchan

“April’s air stirs in
Willow-leaves…a butterfly
Floats and balances”― Bashō, Japanese Haiku

What a non-winter winter.
Less than a few inches of snow in Minnesota.
10 days of cold.
Brown ground.
Buds are about to bloom in February.
Confused by January and February temperatures.
Two days of 50+ degrees.
40-degree days ahead.
On track to be the shortest winter.
Snow mid to late February, perhaps.
All seasons serve their purpose.
Spring is doing double duty this year.
The weather, like so many things in our life we pine about and try to predict.
Out of our control.
Remain in what’s present, early spring.
Winter’s short return.
Nature will take care of itself.
Enjoy all seasons when and how they come.
Find and open each day’s gifts.
February spring.

“I glanced out the window at the signs of spring. The sky was almost blue, the trees were almost budding, the sun was almost bright.”― Millard Kaufman, Bowl of Cherries

Jan 14

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Below Zero Balm

“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximising scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

“That’s the gift of winter: it’s irresistible. Change will happen in its wake, whether we like it or not. We can come out of it wearing a different coat.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Deep freeze for the next week.
Winter has arrived a few months late.
An invitation within, to our own wintering.
Slowing, stillness, pause.
Quiet is loud.
Most try to outrun and avoid it with over busy and frantic activity.
Precise maps rather than adventures into unknown terrain.

“Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Go off trail. Meander.
Let winter do its work in and for you.
Rest, reorder, renew.
Explore, discover, wander.
Regular field trips to the Como Conservatory to find new colors, hues and life are healing balm.
10 minutes away.
Take a field trip within and without each day. Right in your own neighborhood.
No permission slip required.
Go on the hunt for awe, wonder, beauty, still points to spark attention, awareness and gratitude. Then sit with it awhile.
Softening, reorienting, reawakening work in progress.
Unfolding.
Spring by going through, not bypassing, winter.

“In our relentlessly busy contemporary world, we are forever trying to defer the onset of winter. We don’t ever dare to feel its full bite, and we don’t dare to show the way that it ravages us. An occasional sharp wintering would do us good. We must stop believing that these times in our lives are somehow silly, a failure of nerve, a lack of willpower. We must stop trying to ignore them or dispose of them. They are real, and they are asking something of us. We must learn to invite the winter in. We may never choose to winter, but we can choose how.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Dec 21

Sacred Immanence

“A flower will always grow in the direction of the sun because beauty recognizes beauty.”― Matshona Dhliwayo

“Today we celebrate light and honor the wisdom of the shadows. In connecting with the natural world in a way that honors the sacred immanence in all things, we establish a resonance with the seasons.”― Dacha Avelin

Winter solstice
Pivot
Turning point
Threshold into light
That lingers longer each day
A drop at a time
Adding up slowly
Then suddenly we notice
Winter, the precursor to spring
Seasons, cycles, circles of life
Keep crossing thresholds
Where finish lines become new start lines
And we unfold and become, reborn again and again
Solstice well.

“After the longest night, tomorrow we sing up the dawn. There is a rejoicing that, even in the darkest time, the sun is not vanquished. As of tomorrow, the days begin to get longer as the light of day grows. While the gentle winter sun slowly opens its eyes, let us all bring more light and compassion into the world. ”― Dacha Avelin

Apr 15

It’s Coming

“Every winter has its spring.” – H. Tuttle

“Wherever you are, be there totally.” – Eckhart Tolle

You have time.
Stop rushing.
Winter slows.
Slow down.
Be fully in this day.
Walk softly.
Enter rest, sabbath.
Spring is coming, soon, not quite yet.
Spring rains to soften.
Snow to swing through tomorrow.
Nature has her way.
Transition, transformation, spring.
It’s coming.

“You only have control over three things in your life-the thoughts you think, the images you visualise, and the actions you take.”― Jack Canfield

Mar 6

Last Snows

“Yes, I deserve a spring – I owe nobody nothing.”― Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary

“Think of the universe as an eternal creative unfolding.
Trees blossom.
Cells replicate.
Rivers forge new tributaries.
The world pulses with productive energy, and everything that exists on this planet is driven by that energy.
Every manifestation of this unfolding is doing its own work on behalf of the universe, each in its own way, true to its own creative impulse.”― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

A heavy white coat clings to the trees and shrubs.
March snow.
Different that November snow.
Last snows.
The finale to winter.
Prelude to spring.
Nourishing, softening the earth.
Alarm goes off to awaken the seeds and bulbs.
Snooze button a few more times.
Then spring will get up, rise. ensue.
Bursting with color, resurrection, joy.
The anticipation of last snows.
Of new life arriving soon.

“Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. We get to choose.”― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Feb 24

24 Days to Spring

“When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.”― Byron Katie

“Blessed are you who discover that even in the smallness, your attention might be compressed even more. You who pull out a magnifying glass to discover, to notice, to taste, to smell the small joys and simple pleasures that make a life worth living.”- Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie — The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days

An average of 16 inches of snow the past few days.
A fresh canvas to get out and play in or an inconvenience to complain about.
I choose the fresh canvas approach.
It’s more fun.
The final sweeps and swings of winter on our way to spring.
24 days.
Hard to believe but spring always follows winter in due time.
Remain in winter a bit longer.
At the end of the day yesterday, I went knee-deep snowshoeing.
Kids and adults were out sledding and laughing with delight.
Fresh canvas approach.
Only 24 days left to play in the snow.
Probably a few more than 24 days as the dance of season transitions is about to ensue.
Witness and participate in all of it.
Change the narrative, enjoy this day.

“Be joyful because it is humanly possible.”― Wendell Berry

“To preserve the silence within–amid all the noise. To remain open and quiet, a moist humus in the fertile darkness where the rain falls and the grain ripens–no matter how many tramp across the parade ground in whirling dust under an arid sky.”― Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

Dec 21

Robed in Stillness

“Now robed in stillness in this quiet place, emptied of all I was, I bring all that I am your gift of shepherding to use and bless. Cuthbert’s Prayer, St. Aidan’s Chapel, Bradford Cathedral”― Ray Simpson, Daily Light from the Celtic Saints: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Life

“We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives.” – Gary Zukhav

Winter solstice, the first step of the long cut to spring.
No shortcuts, right through the long middle.
Fight or flight or settle into the stillness.
In the waiting, in the wintering, in the quiet.
A purpose, an unfolding, a preparing.
Awake to the gift of each day, of each season.
Open to receiving and giving, the ebb and flow, the rhythm and dance.
Follow the footsteps into the meadow of solstice, of the sun standing still.

“It is growing cold. Winter is putting footsteps in the meadow.” – Roman Payne

Dec 20

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Winter Solstice Eve

“Everything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.” – Wayne Dyer

“So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” – T. S. Eliot

The tipping point of the tipping point
The cusp, the height, the depth
Longest night, shortest day
The first day of winter, though the preview feels like the full movie
Solstice comes from the Latin words “sol” – sun and “sistere” – to stand still
The sun stands still
An invitation to do the same
To witness, to watch, to wait
The beginning of the journey to light
The slow march to spring,
The rebirth of the sun
May you solstice well
Dance in darkness and light
Allowing the stillness to reveal, renew, transform.

“In the stillness of your presence, you can feel your own formless and timeless reality as the unmanifested life that animates your physical form. You can then feel the same life deep within every other human and every other creature. You look beyond the veil of form and separation. This is the realization of oneness. This is love.” – Eckhart Tolle

Dec 16

Winter Wonderland

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

“Beauty surrounds us.”― Rumi

Winter wonderland embracing the trees.
White reflecting light.
A glow, a sparkle.
The sound of flakes crunching under foot.
Snow angels.
A covering, a quieting.
The symphony of winter.
The dance of solstice.
May winter touch your brow.
Beauty, touch your soul.

“When the music changes, so must your dance”― Elaine Welteroth, More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are

“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”. — Khalil Gibran

Nov 29

Take Rest

“Everything comes gradually and at its appointed hour.” – Ovid

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.” – Ovid

Winter is back.
50-degree days and now snow.
The dance of seasons.
Fall, winter, a touch of spring.
Winter’s turn now.
Slowness, quiet, dormancy.
The earth rests and extends the invitation to join.
Beneath, preparing the path to spring when the rest is complete.

“True restfulness, though, is a form of awareness, a way of being in life. It is living ordinary life with a sense of ease, gratitude, appreciation, peace and prayer. We are restful when ordinary life is enough.”― Ronald Rolheiser, The Shattered Lantern: Rediscovering a Felt Presence of God

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