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| Last week, dusk. |
What is your relationship to wintertime?
We are more than halfway between the winter solstice and the spring
equinox…about two-thirds of the way through the calendared season of “winter.”
…except that in one place the snow is said to be “unseasonably” heavy, piling
up so fast that the river becomes the dumping ground for roadway snow accumulation…
…except that on the opposite coast it’s in the mid-80s F…
…except that some people who live in mild climates choose a
month of skiing and snowshoeing in a mountain cabin to get their wintertime
“fix”…
…except that a friend flies away from rain, ice, chill and constant cloud
cover to spend a month in tropical Hawaii each midwinter…
…except that in the southern hemisphere it is late summer…
And this morning
as I edited a manuscript on my computer in my office, a black-capped chickadee
flew directly at my forehead at full speed – stopped only by the unfortunate
windowpane off which he catapulted as he redirected to a bare-leaf tree limb
after the stunning blow…This is a spring thing. Usually.
So, what IS
winter?
How do we mark
it, name it, label it?
Most of all, how
do we experience it?
For me, it is
the embrace of incrementally longer daylight; the noticing of buds on late
winter trees; a refusal to don anything other than “winter clothes” even if
summer wear might feel more comfortable
on the balmy winter days.
It is the
deliberate decision to include some “wintry” images in my blog posts even if
they were in places far off from this two-season geography and time in which I
live.
It is the dreamy
experience of last weekend’s storm when heavy rains and gusty winds blew out
the power and cell and movie-watching possibilities.
It is my
frivolous prayer - each time I see a raindrops icon on my weather app – that
something wet will actually fall on this mostly-sunny-mostly-warm winter
place.
It is my
fervent prayer that the drought will be eased by regular, soaking rains.
It is my
absolutely-tenacious, sacred value for all things Nature to return to balance –
including our human overconsumption and carelessness that are pushing the natural
fluctuations into gross and destructive imbalances.
My experience of
winter is an ever-shifting one.
The core that
remains no matter the outer conditions, though, is the expression of tending
the hearth: compassion-building, patience-nurturing, keeping the flames aglow
within and outside of oneself as the cycles and seasons flow.
Again, I ask: what is your
relationship to wintertime?
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| This morning, dawn. |
All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2015 JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."
