WINTER IS COMING

25 Tishrei 5783, October 20, 2022

I was sitting outside today looking at the trees changing color, the summer annual grass turning brown.  Winter is coming; I could feel it even today as it was in the 40’s with a slight breeze.  Winter is often presented as a time for vision.  It is certainly true that in winter you can literally see further because the tree leaves don’t block your sight.

But something has always felt off about this approach to me about winter. I used to think it was because a lot of my best vision and thought came when I was moving and when I was in the more than human world, and both of those feel more restricted in winter, especially because I don’t like the cold.  But today, bundled up with a blanket around my legs and a cap on my head so sitting there wasn’t cold (hey, I’m a wimp), I had the thought that winter is a time of consolidation. The mad rush to grow of spring and summer is over. The harvest of fall is done.  Sure there’s still some agricultural activity; the deer still browse, the squirrels run from place to place to eat from their stashes, the fox still hunt mice under the leaves, my garden still has kale to pick.  But life is slowing down and we get to ask ourselves what have we learned from the mad rush of the past 6 to 9 months?  What lessons should I let seep deep into myself, deep into my roots, so that they burst forth come spring. The coming winter is a slow period of thought, of sorting. May we all be blessed to deeply learn from our spring and summer growth.