In Winter’s Depths
The Shortest Days of the Year Offer a Great Opportunity for Reflection, Stillness and Contemplation
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire. It is the time for home.” — British poet Edith Sitwell
In Chinese five element theory, winter is a season of stillness and contemplation, in which our energy contracts to just what is most essential. In the natural world from which Chinese medicine takes its cues, we are back to the germinative stage, stored deep inside the earth, so that in springtime, a few months from now, we can burst forth like the shoots of young plants, stretching toward the sun in our quest for growth and change and impact.
Winter, in other words, is a perfect time to take stock of our own resources, to look around to what sustains us, and to glance ever so lightly towards where we want to be in the coming year. Have we accomplished what we wanted this year, or do we feel like our life is off-course a bit, whether in terms of goals accomplished or whether our relationships have sustained us? Does a future springtime beckon with any need for or desire for change? Winter is the time to retreat, observe and evaluate, which quietly and almost effortlessly lays the groundwork for moving forward in the Spring.
