“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“That’s what winter is: An exercise in remembering how to still yourself then how to come pliantly back to life again.” – Ali Smith
The strength and brilliance of winter sun.
Blue is bluer.
Air crisp and sharp.
The sound of snow under foot.
A quiet, slowing, softening.
The great pause.
Acceptance opens the door to joy.
Prelude, precursor to spring.
Preparation and transformation in the rest.
“Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.”― Roman Payne
“Snow creates that quality of awe in the face of a power greater than ours. It epitomises the aesthetic notion of the sublime, in which greatness and beauty couple to overcome you—a small, frail human—entirely.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The power of rest and retreat in difficult times
“Wintering brings about some of the most profound and insightful moments of our human experience, and wisdom resides in those who have wintered.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The power of rest and retreat in difficult times
In the quiet of winter.
In the waiting and wandering.
In due time which is not our time but God’s time and timing.
We schedule our lives, cling to our expectations, project managing for optimal efficiency and productivity.
Counting, measuring, completing, comparing.
Life is more an essay than a math problem to be solved.
Things work out, often not how we have planned for, yet they still do.
In the “no’s” “not now’s” “what ifs” “whys” “why nots” and reasons not yet revealed, “what next” is unraveling.
Growth unseen but still happening.
Slow thaw.
In the wintering, spring resides preparing to unfold.
“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
“Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil.” – Bishop Reginald Heber
“Never yet was a springtime, when the buds forgot to bloom.” – Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
Snow still on the ground.
More to come.
Temperatures on a rollercoaster.
45 and sunny.
10 with windchill.
The seasonal dance as we move closer to Spring, but not quite there.
Birds begin to sing and awaken.
Light lingers longer.
Ice to water back to ice.
Brown grass peeks out of patches where melt has occurred.
Close but not next.
The prelude to the beginning of spring.
Anticipation, preparation and waiting.
Desert time.
The eve of Lent, 40 days.
A container, a well, a room, a place, a space.
Reckoning. Resolve. Reflection. Inflection.
The journey to spring, to resurrection begins with ashes.
Where we come from and where we return.
The in between is the gift we get and give.
Travel well, in companionship, never alone.
The middle ground, the path, the journey to spring is here.
Patiently, take the full trip, into depth, quiet and beauty.
Bloom ahead.
“Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself.” – St. Francis de Sales
“Everything can be taken from a man or woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor E. Frankl
“Cast Light” is an invitation to release your inner light, your authentic self every day. Choose light and cast it to the world.
Featured Quotes
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”― Mary Oliver
“I do not understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.” — Anne Lamott
