Winter in cold climes can be long, dark, and lonely.
So much life disappears—leaves and flowers, birds and butterflies.
Winter in cold climes can take a toll physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
It can be easy to frame winter as something to endure.
A time of emptiness, lack, the condition of being without.
It could also be considered a time of dormancy.
A season of rest.
A pregnant pause.
And in that pregnant pause, we can choose.
To live wild.
Which in this case is to honor the season, whatever it maybe be.
Sometimes that might mean to snuggle into the dark and quiet.
To yield.
Nourishing the deepest part of ourselves, feeding it so that we are rested and healthy, ready for whatever comes next.
Because we never know.
We never know what is on its way.
To live wild means that when we find ourselves in a season of quiet and darkness, we might take it as a sign to rest.
To nourish.
To see the stillness, the emptiness even, as a necessary ingredient to growth.
When we find ourselves in a season of quiet and darkness, we might take it as a sign to sit.
Breathe.
Center in our center, feeding the life there, letting it become strong, ready.
To live wild means we can rest and nourish in one season in order that we might be grounded and intentional about what we want to plant and grow in the next.
We never know what is on its way.
To live wild is to trust the seasons—we need darkness and quiet just as much as we need activity and light.
To live wild is to trust the seasons to do the good work, the necessary work—sometimes, that work is to yield and soften. Sometimes it is to reach and grow.
To live wild means that when the time is right, you can gather the seeds and ready yourself for growth, which is to say ready yourself for change.
Intentionally, joyfully, begin the activity of sowing.
Broadcast near and wide the beautiful. You never know what will grow where.
Trust the seasons. Rest, change, reach, grow. And then get ready—to live wild and live light.
Living wild seems like a good strategy for a snowbird, too. Even though My wife and I leapfrog the seasons by migrating from New England to Florida and back, living wild is always the best way to be anywhere. Thanks for this great meditation!