Winter

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face…do the thing you think you cannot do.”

(Eleanor Roosevelt)

Somehow, my body has managed to bend within the dog days of winter. Like the cycles of the seasons, the body experiences the same metamorphosis. With more contraction, I must move consciously, steady, steady, since building heat takes time, more effort. With the limitation of the weather, and how the body reacts, it's a dynamic, offering challenge, and discovery. Is it still possible to find freedom within limitation?

Winter practices have taught me how to move in a way that slowly kindles the internal fire. Yes, it's harder to get out of bed. It's dark. Dawn comes much later than the vibrancy of Spring and Summer. There's heaviness. Since 'flow' isn't necessarily handed over to me on a silver platter, I've come to the point where it's about creating it. Not taking one movement for granted.

Winter is a time to get back in touch with internal Grace. Something the practice can easily reveal as I burn through inner resistance, and let go. Learning to move with the heaviness, while creating lightness, only makes me stronger.

Making it through the Winter, in times of darkness, entering realms of grace and stillness. There is no need to resist what is. I can even find beauty in it. I can even find myself.