bundle up, it's cold out there!

looking out at the bright sunshine coming in my window this morning i am thankful, but also waiting in anticipation for the blooms of spring. i don't 'do' winter well. i want to tuck in, tune out and stay in my jammies until the thaw.

parker palmer introduced the thought to me of using the seasons as a metaphor for life. he writes (Let Your Life Speak, pg. 102 & 103) this about winter:

"If you live here (Wisconsin) long, you learn that a daily walk into the winter world will fortify the spirit by taking you boldy to the very heart of the season you fear.

Our inward winters take many forms - failure, betrayal, depression, death. But every one of them, in my experience, yields to the same advice: "The winters will drive you crazy until you learn to get out in them." Until we enter boldly into the fears we most want to avoid, those fears will dominate our lives. But when we walk directly into them - protected from frostbite by the warm garb of friendship or inner discipline or spiritual guidance - we can learn what they have to teach us. Then we discover once again that the cycle of the seasons is trustworthy and life-giving, even in the most dismaying season of all."

i know that my desire to tuck in speaks directly to the fears i am trying to avoid today. learning 'to get out in them' is something i'm trying to do. to bundle up with warm friends, inner discipline and spiritual guidance so i am better able to weather the storms of my life that blow around me.

thank you for the warmth i find here, it's giving me courage to weather the storm.