Daily walk in the season of fresh starts
I step out my back door. Look up to the tops of the trees.
“Now is the time of fresh starts
This is the season that makes everything new.”
I walk down the drive, past the split rail fence Elise helped us build.
“There is a longstanding rumor that Spring is the time
of renewal”
I look for wolves in fields where I’ve seen them before.
“but that’s only if you ignore the depressing
clutter and din of the season.”
I look for January ice, but it’s still December.
“All that flowering
and budding and birthing—the messy youthfulness
of Spring actually verges on squalor.”
I stand in my church
and make a promise to myself.
“Spring is too busy,
too full of itself, too much like a 20-year-old to be the best time for reflection, regrouping, and starting fresh.”
“For that you need December.”
“You need to have lived …
through the mindless biological imperatives of your life (to bud, and flower, and show off)”
“before you can see that a landscape of new fallen snow is the real you.”
“December has the clarity, the simplicity, and the silence you need for the best fresh start of your life.”
~ excerpted from When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler’s Journal of Staying Put
4 Responses to “Daily walk in the season of fresh starts”
What a great set of photos to go with your musings! ?
Thanks, Judy! The musings are Vivian Swift’s though (everything in quotation marks), but I heartily agree!
I love this, Leslie. I love December, the dark, the resting, the re-grouping of myself, my thoughts and intentions. I share the following to add to your contribution. Seasons greetings and best wishes to you and Chris.
“We are approaching the threshold of winter.
Life is being drawn into the earth, painlessly descending down into the very heart of herself.
And we as natural human animals are being called to do the same, the pull to descend into our bodies, into sleep, darkness and the depths of our own inner caves continually tugging at our marrow.
But many find the descent into their own body a scary thing indeed, fearing the unmet emotions and past events that they have stored in the dark caves inside themselves, not wanting to face what they have so carefully and unkindly avoided.
This winter solstice time is no longer celebrated as it once was, with the understanding that this period of descent into our own darkness was so necessary in order to find our light. That true freedom comes from accepting with forgiveness and love what we have been through and vanquishing the hold it has on us, bringing the golden treasure back from the cave of our darker depths.
This is a time of rest and deep reflection, a time to wipe the slate clean as it were and clear out the old so you can walk into spring feeling ready to grow and skip without a dusty mountain on your back & chains around your ankles tied to the caves in your soul.
A time for the medicine of story, of fire, of nourishment and love.
A period of reconnecting, relearning & reclaiming of what this time means brings winter back to a time of kindness, love, rebirth, peace and unburdening instead of a time of dread, fear, depression and avoidance.
This modern culture teaches avoidance at a max at this time; alcohol, lights, shopping, overworking, over spending, bad food and consumerism.
And yet the natural tug to go inwards as nearly all creatures are doing is strong and people are left feeling as if there is something wrong with them, that winter is cruel and leaves them feeling abandoned and afraid. Whereas in actual fact winter is so kind, yes she points us in her quiet soft way towards our inner self, towards the darkness and potential death of what we were, but this journey if held with care is essential.
She is like a strong teacher that asks you to awaken your inner loving elder or therapist, holding yourself with awareness of forgiveness and allowing yourself to grieve, to cry, rage, laugh, & face what we need to face in order to be freed from the jagged bonds we wrapped around our hearts, in order to reach a place of healing & light without going into overwhelm.
Winter takes away the distractions, the noise and presents us with the perfect time to rest and withdraw into a womb like love, bringing fire & light to our hearth.”
•words Brigit Anna McNeill•
Thanks for this, Ramona. One of the things I have most appreciated and treasured since we moved up here is exactly what McNeill describes – the annual descent into darkness and quiet. You can imagine how peaceful it is out here on the backroad through the winter. I hope you’re doing well down south. Have a wonderful holiday season, and please remember us to Dusty.