WINTER
Winter,
like a pregnant woman,
holds a promise.
Anticipate patiently.
Descend into the stillness
under a blanket of snow.
Be with the nothing.
It is where you will find All.
Give life time to incubate
despite the absence of visible signs.
Trust the process.
SPRING
Hold gently
the pain of a breaking bud.
Rock it slowly,
there, there.
Ride the throbbing wave.
Breathe in rhythm.
Feel the pulse
of stretching and contracting.
And then,
from a space
much too small,
a blossom emerges.
SUMMER
Celebrate abundance,
and splurge.
Dance wildly
in a circle of plenty,
drunk from too much.
Gather the harvest gratefully.
Indulge in ripened, sweet fruit.
Receive shamelessly
until your cup runneth over.
Then give it all away
like there’s no tomorrow
and melt in the heat of the sun.
AUTUMN
Allow change.
Loosen your attachments
and fall with the leaves in the autumn wind.
Flowers wilt as they go to seed.
Honor their death.
Attend the burial in silent respect.
Surrender control.
Descend like seeds
into earth’s dark womb,
only made richer
by the decay of last year's glory.
WINTER
There is stillness in winter. Colors fade. Nature is in repose. Life sleeps, as if suspended in time. Snowflakes sail through the air without a sound, covering the ground like a blanket. The earth retreats into itself. Animals rest in lairs, burrows and caves.
We too, experience times, when we seem to go into creative hibernation. We may feel as if the muse has left us, or that the well of inspiration has dried up. We feel depleted or overcome by inertia. We worry, feel defeated and lose hope.
In those moments we need to remind ourselves that our inner lives also go through the cycle of seasons. Sometimes we might have to let go of the urge to accomplish and produce and instead allow our lives to lie fallow. We need time when we do not till, sow, or harvest; a time when we descend deep into the ground of our being to be replenished and to rest.
For some it means doing absolutely nothing, staring into a crackling fire, and being silent long enough to hear the voice of the soul. For others, a walk on a windy beach can be a boost of energy. The vast, limitless sky and the endless, roaring ocean sweep us up into a healing embrace.
Whether we spend time in silence, or in the harmony and beauty of nature, music, or art, we will feel nourished and ready to emerge back into the world, restored and renewed.
Despite the absence of visible signs, winter is pregnant with possibility. Whenever we lose sight of the light, we need to remember that seeds need darkness in order to germinate and grow their roots deep. Spring will inevitably come, in due time.
SPRING
What wants to be born, cannot be held back, and what can no longer be contained, must be given space. A bud opens when a blossom unfolds and stretches as if woken from a deep sleep. A chick outgrows the confines of an egg. A butterfly hears the call of destiny and the cocoon breaks open.
When things fall apart in our lives, it hurts and we are afraid. It seems as if we have come to an end. Our circumstances may seem unbearable. This pain, however, could be a sign that birth, or a blossoming, is imminent.
We learn from this metaphor, that life can be so much more than we ever thought possible, that “death” often precedes the birth of something new, that life and great beauty often come from dark spaces, be it earth, womb, egg, or chrysalis, and that life can sometimes be messy and that’s okay.
The butterfly’s struggling to emerge from the cocoon is, in fact, a necessary part of its metamorphosis. It strengthens its unfolding fragile wings. Instead of resisting our own struggles, we can allow them to make us stronger, deeper, and wiser. We need to trust our own metamorphosis and believe in the magical force of transformation. When the time is right, we too, will emerge a new being.
We can sow the seeds of our own choosing, but we cannot make them bloom. They will bloom when they’re good and ready. Trusting the process of growth, we discover that there is something within us that will always prompt us to toward expansion and growth.
SUMMER
Spring is a time of painful breaking open and birth, but it is also a time, along with summer, when Mother Nature displays abundance with an unrestrainable audacity. She holds nothing back. The sun shines on the good and the bad alike. There is an almost shameless abundance in nature, a never ending profusion of life.
When apples ripen at the end of the season, they loosen their attachment to the branch and literally fall into our hands. The tree does not hoard and save for a rainy day. It gives all. Contrary to what people may think, giving is not more important than receiving. If no one is there to receive, giving becomes pointless. Giving and receiving become one and the same.
We often feel unworthy of receiving, or that we must be “good” in order to receive. We believe that we should be able to do without or that wanting is shameful. We often respond to the giver with a modest “oh you shouldn’t have…”
That kind of mindset only puts a “stick in the wheel”, or rather, circle, of plenty. Let’s instead enter into this perpetual cycle with all that it entails. What riches can we share? What services can we offer? What can we give? Even if it’s just a smile, a hand, or a couple of words of encouragement and comfort.
And let’s be equally excited about what we’re about to receive, joyfully anticipating, like a child on the night before Christmas. It’s never a question of whether or not we are worthy. It’s about simply participating in the pulse of life, the universal law of circulation. Blood flows into our hearts and out again. We breathe in and we breathe out. Trees produce oxygen that we breathe in and when we breathe out we provide the trees with carbon dioxide. We pour our love and creative effort into this world, and the world will pour itself into us, generously, and it’s all good. The circle is complete.
AUTUMN
We enjoy our beautiful gardens in spring and summer, when the profusion of color and the vibrancy of life are at their peak. When fall approaches and flowers wilt and die and when the leaves fall, we may feel a sense of loss and sadness.
So much suffering comes from wanting things to stay the same in a world where nothing ever does. Seasons change. Birth, death, and rebirth are part of nature’s rhythm. As flowers wilt, however, they go to seed, seeds that will one day become thousands of new flowers.
The tree loses its leaves in the fall and they stand naked and vulnerable. But even though the leaves are gone, the tree endures, and in the spring it will grow new leaves. When we experience loss, we often feel a similar sense of vulnerability and emotional nakedness. We may lose a job, an opportunity, or money, but our innate capacity to recreate it all, remains intact.
We may lose our “cool” and the ego lays shattered. In that moment we feel, perhaps, as if we’re disintegrating, but our real, inner selves is still untouched and whole. When we lose a friend or loved
one, the pain is so intense that we feel as if we can’t go on, but amazingly enough, we do, and we find within us, a deep strength we never even knew we had.
When we look back and see all the misshapen moments that have somehow found their way into our lives, we feel regret and disappointment. But maybe there is no such thing as a “perfect” life. Maybe our crazy lives are just as they are supposed to be, perfectly imperfect. Our mistakes are often our greatest teachers and life experience always take us further than borrowed wisdom
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