Wintering

This morning, I was speaking with a friend and collegue, the brilliant and beautiful Anela of Ulele Coaching (https://www.anelabarboza.com/) about how I was finding it challenging to put words to what I am feeling and experiencing lately. I told her I feel more like a bear in my cave, sleeping, hermit-ing, hybernating, than a human these days, and that my motivation for work is less than ambitious. She shared she is also experiencing her own version of this in the warmer climate she calls home where she has lived for the past 2 years, after she lived in a northern climate for many years previous. She called this phenomena “wintering.”

She read me a poem, written by another coach, James Pearson, while I glanced at the branches of a leafless tree in my periphery. (https://jamesapearson.com/wintering/)

Wintering

Now the leaves have fallen.
The trees have pulled their aliveness
back in from their branches,
down into their fortress trunks
and the dark, subterranean closeness
of their roots.

Every year they let go of
exactly what everyone says
is most beautiful about them
to save their own lives.

The time will come
when you, too, have to drop
all the ways you’ve made yourself worth loving,
and finally learn how
to sit quietly
right in the center
of your own small life.

Only there can you cry the tears
your life depends on.
Only there will you find
the tiny seed
that holds the whole mystery of you
and cradle it
in the warmth of your body
until the spring.

I felt a little healed. I felt attuned. I am wintering.

Still, there are tasks that need attending to, including making income to pay the bills, to care for and educate the kid, to save for the events that money is needed to cover the expenses of proper health care. Being human is a bit more complex than being bear or tree, I suppose. Is it though? Regardless, I am inspired by plants and animals, remembering I too, am an animal and not all that different than a plant. I will let it rest at that for now.

As we winter together in our own ways, what kind of support do you want or need? Are you longing to create something, that in the process of making, feeds your spirit? Would some guidance and inspiration move you in the direction your being wants to go?

I’ll tell you, I’ve been creating in my cave at a pace that suits my energy. As I shared last month, I recently turned my office into a sewing studio. I spend at least an hour or 2 most days of the week cutting patterns and fabric, sewing the pieces together and wearing my creations around the house or to events. I’ve also just experimented with using scrap fabrics to express feelings or things that I cannot seem to put words to. The projects are lined up and I am energized by giving them my attention, even prioritizing them over duties I thought were so important. And guess what? Those duties are getting taken care of by others or have dropped away as much less significant than I had imagined.

How does that sound to you? Do you have a project such as a book, or a painting, or a quilt, or a new business idea that is asking for or commanding your attention? Do you long to tap into your creative drive, knowing it’s been there all along waiting for you to discover it? Are you curious about how creativity can be a lasting source of happiness and a sustaining wellness tool?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, click here and learn about my new offering.

Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. The work wants to be made, and it wants to be made through you. ~Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic