Winter
Just a gentle reminder people, that winter is a time to rest. These shortening days of diminishing light call for a pause. A moment of reflection. This time of year the moon is bright, the night is long, the power of Yin is strong. Yin energy is soft and gentle, luxuriates in doing nothing. From now until the New Year, be still. Nourish your roots. Give time and space for dreams to conceive themselves, though they will not be actioned till spring.
Stay warm. Eat soup, bone broth is perfect if you’re that way inclined, or miso with lots of seaweed for the non-carnivorous. Ginger strengthens the kidneys, which can feel challenged at this time of year, especially if you do not heed their call for introspection. So eat ginger. Or inhale the essential oil. Go to bed early, don’t rise before the sun. If the sun doesn’t rise, you don’t either.
It’s one of the things I love about living here, far away from city lights and Christmas craziness, all that electronic noise, we feel the rhythms of nature and move with them. There is no shame in being in bed by 8pm. I go out to “do” something with the horses and we nap in the afternoon’s last sun, heads hanging low. Companionable. I walk into the Big Oak grove and am blown away by the depth of the stillness, the slumbering giants. I feel the roots groan beneath my feet as I pad quietly through.
But even if you do not have my luck (or temerity) and are deep in the materialistic madness that is this season’s revelry, keep one eye on the quiet space within. Curl up there like a cat beside the fire, contented.
Soon the days will grow longer. The energy will start to rise, imperceptibly at first, then surging upwards into action. So enjoy this time of lazy sluggishness if you can. Surrender to nature’s pull.
