WINTER

This is the season of dormancy when the extravagance of summer becomes a distant memory. Earth seems to know it is time to let the land lay fallow and go inside for a while. Life waits, subdued and hidden in mystery.

• Days of light are shorter and shorter
• An invitation to a slower pace
• Barren branches are hushed
• Hibernating creatures snuggle in their protective homes
• Seeds of all sorts wait in soil’s quietness

Winter is not the time for stretching and growing. It is time for withdrawal and the restoration of energy.

The lessening of light and increase of darkness are necessary ingredients for the earth’s nourishment. They enable the fallow process to happen. Nature has been busy producing. It is time to slow down and rest. Without this rest, soil wears out and loses its nutrients. All of creation needs time to pause and have its spent energy renewed. So do we! Winter offers this gift of essential renewal.

What is your experience of winter?

Slowing down becomes a way of life whether we choose it or not.

• It takes longer to dress
• The car takes longer to warm up
• We learn to be tentative about our plans
• We walk more slowly, drive more carefully
• We’re even challenged to cultivate a different kind of seeing if we are to perceive the beauty of a winter landscape.

Winter teaches us that there is a time to produce and a time to refrain from producing – that in life there are rhythms of working and resting, of busyness and stillness, of doing and being. Winter invites us to pause along the path of our days to take time out, to breathe, to be with our thoughts, to pray, to listen to soothing music, etc. All of these are ways of our trying to make room for God and to help find God’s loving presence and action in the midst of our lives.

Winter has its share of beauty, but it also has its share of harshness. Bone chilling temperatures, blizzards, loss of electricity, broken tree limbs laden with ice are the destructive part of the season. Because of the harsh conditions of winter, it is natural to underestimate the positive value of this season.

The same is true of our interior winters. Few consider their inner wintertime something to enjoy, yet this season is vital for spiritual growth.

• Inner storms and prolonged hard times are part of our interior winters
• This season challenges our comfort zones
• Courage to stand firm, faith to maintain a positive outlook and hope for the future are all stored in the rhythms of winter
• The extended darkness of our inner winter can be an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and our relationship with God
• The fury of winter storms forces us to let go of our securities
• It causes us to reach out for help from others when our strength is frail and our spirit lacks the confidence to go on.
• We can easily lose heart, stop believing in our goodness, forget about our resilience and discount the presence of those who love us.
• There is often sadness, loneliness, a depletion of joy.
• This is the season of grief and depression – of searching and struggle.
• Enthusiasm wanes
• Our passion for life is stripped from us – we become like a barren branch
• This Gethsemane-like period taunts our winter hearts with a persistent fear that we will never again feel good about ourselves or about life.

But winter is a season of waiting. It requires great trust and the willingness to believe that this time will not last forever. The land offers us a lesson of hope. Even though earth appears dead and void of any movement – there is quiet growth taking place. In the caves and hidden hollows baby bears are being born. In the frozen air, branches sprout terminal buds which grow every day. In frozen soil, flower bulbs are strengthened for their future journey upward toward the sun.

In our winter human hearts:

• Silent seeds of confidence are preparing for amazing new growth
• When we are in our winter space, we may be tempted to give up, lose hope, and stop believing in ourselves and in the presence of God with us because we can’t see any growth.
• This inner season asks us only to be, to live with mystery, to wait patiently and keep our eyes on a future springtime.
• It offers us assurance that the seeds of life are being tended, that what is needed for growth is simply waiting to burst forth.
• New life is stirring beneath the surface.
• Winter will not have the last word.
• We will be equipped to meet the challenges of our lives, remembering that there is more to ourselves, more to life than what we see. God is always with us – caring for us, tending to us, loving us always, helping us to cope with all of life as it unfolds around us.

So winter teaches us two lessons:

• One – slow down, be still, let our lives be fallow for a time so that we may be renewed and strengthened and become more aware of God’s presence with us.
• Two – we can trust that no storm will have the last word and even in the midst of winter, growth is taking place – even if we cannot see it.