winter approachesthe days shorten and darken, the nights grow long
there are lots of grumbles and moans...every year. this change in light to dark effects us deeply, especially since so few of us actually respect or honour this rhythm of the Earth.what would your life look like if, for a few months while the days are short, you slowed down? did less? breathed more? be-d more? what would your life feel like in resonance with Mother Earth?though i rarely go to the bible for references, the old testament commands farmers to allow their land to lie fallow every seventh year.
though our twelve month cycle doesn’t fit this specific rhythm, it has one of its own....autumn, to winter, to spring and summer. what would your life be like lived in this rhythm, allowing the dark time to be a fallow, slower time?the fallow year allows the earth to simply be...or so it appears on the surface. when planting and tilling and weeding cease, the surface rests while unseen energies...the bugs and microbes...are doing their work.
so it can be with us. we have our own inner life, the one unseen on the surface. during this quiescent time thoughts, dreams, ideas have space to bubble and blend.
they are preparing to emerge after the winter solstice when the days lengthen.because we live in a society based on productivity this pause, this yearly period of rest, is ignored, derided, transformed into a season of consuming. it is ignored just as elders, who consume less and produce less, are ignored and sidelined. this inner spacetime, which is integral to eldering, is transformed into meaninglessness and debility.what would all of our lives look like when the seasons of our lives honoured the seasons of the Earth? what would all of our lives look like when elders are honoured? when we honour ourselves?