A very moving reflection, Lindsey. I feel the heaviness and darkness and taste the ashes. Winter can be an emotionally difficult time.
Like you, I come from a religious background and rebel against the humiliation. I used to dislike the cold and darkness of winter and Lent, but now I’ve come to enjoy this time of rest and preparation. It has an inner beauty that’s easy to miss unless, like Kathryn May (I saw your reference to her), we learn to appreciate the silence and solitude as a way to rebuild strength for the coming days of light and activity.
Now, as the snow falls outside from dark overhanging clouds, I go inward, earthward, and rest in the peaceful awareness that this quiet time of winter is a preparing for light, for growth, for expansion, both inwardly and outwardly, and I rejoice for what is coming instead of regretting what is past. I loved your allusion to stardust. If one believes in spirit of any kind, one realizes such inner light and growth is not wasted on a dying body but expands ever outward in an uplifted soul finding its way back to the stars and the divinity that created them.
Beautiful sharing and insights, Lindsey. Grateful and honored to be a partner in the synergy of this reflection! <3
We are dust. What a poignant reminder of the cyclical nature of our lives. Beautiful writing.
Thank you ❤️
A very moving reflection, Lindsey. I feel the heaviness and darkness and taste the ashes. Winter can be an emotionally difficult time.
Like you, I come from a religious background and rebel against the humiliation. I used to dislike the cold and darkness of winter and Lent, but now I’ve come to enjoy this time of rest and preparation. It has an inner beauty that’s easy to miss unless, like Kathryn May (I saw your reference to her), we learn to appreciate the silence and solitude as a way to rebuild strength for the coming days of light and activity.
Now, as the snow falls outside from dark overhanging clouds, I go inward, earthward, and rest in the peaceful awareness that this quiet time of winter is a preparing for light, for growth, for expansion, both inwardly and outwardly, and I rejoice for what is coming instead of regretting what is past. I loved your allusion to stardust. If one believes in spirit of any kind, one realizes such inner light and growth is not wasted on a dying body but expands ever outward in an uplifted soul finding its way back to the stars and the divinity that created them.
Beautifully said!
*Katherine