Embracing the Four Seasons As A Guide For Personal Reflection
As we enter the new year, let’s embrace the four seasons as a guide and personal reflection opportunity. There is a richness in the seasonal metaphor for our lives, as well as an invitation to intentionally embrace them.
In December I found myself buzzing with intensity, given demands. One day looked like the next and the next. I was exhausted. My women’s group was doing a study around embracing nature and natural elements. We were encouraged to take a “ritual bath.” Instead of the suggested herbs, I used a bath bomb but went through intentional steps of embracing renewal. When I emerged, I felt my intensity flow off. I felt “softer “inside and out.
My pause, release, and relaxing into the flow provided me the renewal and restoration to engage in a piece of my work that had been weighing on me for days. The task was then done with peace and not duty.
Not allowing ourselves pauses, particularly pauses that allow us to embrace the natural rhythms God has given us, is a disservice to us and the divine.
How do you experience or even embrace the seasons? Maybe the first question is, should you embrace and fully experience the seasons? Why does it matter?
A few answers come to me. Embracing the seasons allows us to:
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Have a sense of rhythm in our lives.
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Be present to goodness that exists and the uniqueness each season brings.
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Mark the passage of time which feels particularly important during this “season“ of Covid.
This year I am going to explore the seasons with you. We will contemplate the uniqueness of each season and embrace practices to open ourselves to fully experience them.
I would love for our Thriver Tribe community to share ways they embrace each season as well. There is wisdom to be gathered from all. Please share in the comment box, I love to read your input!
Let’s start by contemplating the Season of Winter and embracing this season more intentionally to allow deep insight to come.
The Winter Solstice has associations of stillness, hibernation and incubation. If you consider it as the flow of breath, it would be the emptiness of breath between the exhale and the inhale.
- Take a deep breath, and slowly release.
- Allow yourself to pause once you have completed the exhale and experience this emptiness of breath.
- Perhaps do this a couple more times.
As I breathe, I feel a sense of anticipation of what is to come. By emptying out, I am now able to receive.
- Will you join me in resting into the mystery of what is to come?
- Are you able to make room for quiet rest which requires deep trust and a move from striving and doing?
- Finally, can you welcome wisdom and goodness that is available in this space?
On the 15th, we will begin exploring ways to embrace Winter. I invite you to begin considering what fun ways you might be able to begin embracing it in the meantime. For me, it might be with warm cups of peppermint tea, a fuzzy blanket that invites cuddling, maybe even time on the back porch that will give a contrasting crispness. Perhaps you could curl up to a crackling fire to awaken your senses… sight, sound, smell, touch, maybe even taste.
“To live an enchanted life is to fall in love with the world all over again. This is an active choice, a leap of faith which is necessary not just for our own sakes, but for the sake of the wide, wild Earth in whose being and becoming we are so profoundly and beautifully entangled.” From The Enchanted Life by Sharon Blackie
2022 can be the year to embrace the flow of seasons and to live an enchanted life. My curious internal little girl is looking forward to what surprises and insights they might bring. I hope you will join her in the wonder.
Talk To Tambry
I am glad you have taken the time to engage with this blog. Sometimes it is helpful to process new insights that emerge. If you would appreciate brief time with a someone who understands, our Talk to Tambry offering is for you. For 30 minutes, you can receive support from Tambry who is a certified life coach, spiritual director and a survivor who has been on the journey as well. This is offered at a reduced rate of $50.
