Tender body
Soft body
Earth body
Tired body
Mending body
Slow body
Resting body
Retreating body
Still body
Wintering body...
There is a need at this time of year
To pull away from the craziness
The bright lights
The mental pace
To wilt down into our own winter
To allow our animal body
To meet its
Animal needs.
To pay attention.
To become as still as the earth.
There is so much to receive from the
Murky container of
Winter.
Don't be fooled by its bleakness.
Underneath the barren surface,
Life rumbles.
Seeds are embedding themselves
deep deep deep
down in the dark rich soil
Anchoring themselves in preparation for spring's emergence.
Winter is the delicate companionship of rooting down.
The deep feminine season of descent.
A time to hold and be with.
A time to ground.
A time of downward pull.
Deep nourishment in the prolific depths.
A time to be cradled by the earth.
There is nothing wrong with having less energy in winter than you did in summer.
Contrary to capitalism, this is not a dysfunction.
It is your beautiful body
Craving a beautiful winter..
Conventional modern day advice, toxic positivity and spiritual bypassing
Have us terrified of darkness.
Wishing it away
Purging it from our being.
Raising our vibration.
Rejecting any intelligence by pathologising.
What a devastating misunderstanding of our human nature.
We cannot purge, reject or shame our way into wholeness.
But only love and nurture our way into wholeness.
Our mess belongs.
Our vulnerability belongs.
Darkness is not in the way
It is the way.
Life itself could not exist without it.
Not only is winter symbolic of what is necessary for growth
But a time to tend to the darkness within
The wounds
The aches
The loneliness
The parts within us that are lost and weary, longing for our love.
Winter reminds us to stop running.
We heal when we can be with what we feel.
This doesn't always make things easy I know
Life is hard.
Over the last two years I have experienced a thousand deaths and rebirths
All at once.
And it's terrifying. The fear, the terror, the grief. I thought it would obliterate me completely. With every layer that was crumbling, I was sure I was going to disappear.
But, I didn't.
And I am growing in confidence that I won't.
I am more trusting that with every layer that is stripped from me, I get closer and closer to the core of who I am.
Beneath the shards, something infinitely unbreakable remains.
And what seems to be cultivating within me is not necessarily an 'easier' life,
But a more trusting one.
A deeper trust in our seasons of winter.
A greater capacity to be with myself and to hold myself. And that feels huge. Especially in a world that encourages us not to.
A deeper acceptance of who I really am.
A life that feels far more intimate and precious.
I am less afraid of my darkness
For my darkness is not out to get me, but to reveal to me.
I am less inclined to run from myself.
Because I can feel a deep inner knowing, in my depths, that on the other side of all that is crumbling and dying away is something new, something alive, something so deeply authentic and real.
I hold an even greater appreciation for the intelligence of our bodies...forever pointing the way towards healing and wholeness.
So I will be welcoming winter this year.
Bowing gladly at her potent and ferocious purpose.
Receiving her invitation.
For everything within me that feels real, I found within the depths of my darkness.
Darkness is not a tomb after all,
But a womb.
<3
Katy Kettner
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