Asking for a sign from nature this morning, (No, I didn’t see a bear!) I noticed birds flying north. Smiling here… yes from “birds flying north” my inner voice said: migrate, hibernate, seasons of turning within and rest. Okay, maybe I haven’t quite got this intuition thing down yet! Regardless, the message I heard was pretty clear. So much of non-human life knows about seasons, expansion and contraction, expression and lying low, outward beauty and inward renewal. I live in Wisconsin and every year leaves and grass and flowers and sunshine and warmth are replaced with barren and cold and snow and a shifting out of the wildlife that we see – and do not see.
Today this got me thinking about my own life. What season am I in now? Then I went a layer deeper and wondered, What is ready for a seasonal shift? What activities, habits, hobbies, relationships are past their prime or in need of rest?
Within rest is renewal. Within rest is the letting go of thoughts and plans and busyness. Within rest is the daydream, the opening, the imagining, the transforming. Within rest is space.
What in you needs a rest?
What would the space of release allow?
What needs to hibernate?
What will emerge in Spring?