Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Winter

As we conclude a year of many endings, we turn inward to regroup and to accept the barrenness that accompanies loss, endings and release. Winter is the time to hibernate, find stillness and enter a place of solitude~grieving as needed.  There is a beauty in stillness, an inner strength that stems from becoming rooted in the self mastery of peace in the face of whatever befalls us.

We have collectively lost many great artists, authors, musicians, writers and leaders in 2016. Many in my circle have lost relationships to break ups and close family members to death. On a global scale, we are  transitioning and losing the political leadership with which we are familiar. There is seeming unrest and distress across the world.

Personally, the matriarch of my family~my grandmother Bubbie Sonia who was a Holocaust survivor and a resilient bubbly mischievous woman passed less than 2 months ago. Additionally. I have let go of my typical daily activities and have settled into a period of waiting. It is a death of sorts. This waiting may feel like a forever sentence, but the slumber is where the healing is.

What can we say about loss and grief? It isn't flashy, bright or shiny. Were it not a required part of the process, very few would sign up for this course. Yet we are choice-less in this arena. Life moves in cycles. Even our greatest celebrities cannot escape the fate of death. No work of art, Nobel Peace Prize or amount of money in the bank can lift us from this harsh truth. Yet, it is this truth that inspires the greatest art, our most tender human moments and encourages us to come alive. But not before the grief.

Take some time to yourself to be still. You needn't force a feeling of sadness if it isn't there. What you find in the stillness; in the nothingness, will be the seed you plant for the next correct action. Do not be afraid of nothing. Nothing is the most creative space of all. It is where all possibility lives and it is where you will find all that you dream of.

Trust the process.

Winter.