MHW ADAR BET 2
Winter into Spring.
I write these pieces as part of working to align my body with what is happening in the more than human world. We live in a culture that shields us from our embodied selves. We are disconnected from what is happening, whether that is heat or cold or precipitation or the death of animals or vegetables in our search for comfort. And oh, boy, we are comfortable.
I like being comfortable. When it is cold out there, I bundle up and go outdoors for a few minutes—that’s better than a huge percentage of the population, but doesn’t hold a candle to our ancestors who, you know, actually expected to be cold during the winter even when they built fires. Our ancestors’ bodies understood the world in which they were embedded because how could they not? But we have developed the technology so that we can be out of touch. It’s a mixed blessing.
I write these pieces to help my body feel aligned with what is happening outside of me in the rhythms of the earth. The questions are designed to deepen the connection, to have me and you, if you take it on, dwell with some human self development based on what is happening outside.
We also live in a culture that is far too stuck in our heads, and boy have I been a living example of that. I remember actually being excited when I learned about Plato’s view of humans as souls imprisoned in a body. Yeah, I thought, that’s exactly right (this was actually in my pre teen years). Ugh, I think now. This is both a dumb and highly destructive idea— personally, for society as a whole and unfortunately for the entire world.
So I invite you to sink into the in between time that is winter into spring.
Winter into Spring is a confusing time of the year. Spring has clearly started, the crocuses are fading, there’s a daffodil or two that has seen better days, there’s some patches of lawn that could use cutting, the woodpecker is thrumming against the tree, there is a shrubby kind of wild tree that has started to leaf out and the early ornamentals planted on lawns are all ornamenting.
And yet, spring feels like it hasn’t really started, if spring is this explosion of growth. The lawn is greening up, but most of it has not started to grow. Most of the trees other than the ornamentals have not started to leaf out; they feel on the verge of leafing out, but that’s not the same thing. Brown and grey still feel like the predominant colors and last years leaves are still on the beeches and some of the oaks. If you were wild foraging, there’s something to forage e.g. onion grass, but there’s just not the plenty that will be here in another month. I’ve yet to see any fawns or hear baby birds crying to be fed, though this may be my ignorance.
In the mornings when I sit outside, I am usually bundled up in my coat, a blanket over my legs, a stocking cap on my head. It is in the 30’s and cold. The long johns may be packed away, but the shorts have yet to make an appearance. I come back to the house and the winter coat and gloves go away until the next morning. If I go walking in the afternoon, a hoody is enough. Above all it feels like this weird, indeterminate time where I know we are moving closer to the explosion of growth, but my body feels stuck and I can’t quite get there…
QUESTIONS
What feels ready to burst forth, but is somehow not quite happening yet? What is keeping you stuck?
Where do you feel betwixt and between in your life?
What is greening up in your life?
Alberta Canada pasture starting to green up, with too much left over feed from the previous Fall. This pasture needs better management.