Great lakes, ponds, and streams freeze over; the earth grows hard and unreceptive. Tree sap stops flowing; even the air becomes dense, slow to move, and heat stealing. Yet, not everything is as it appears to be!
The pervasive stillness and deep silence of winter are powers every bit as great as are the explosive forces of spring and summer, only different. After all, what is a glacier but a vast frozen river crawling its way through time? Both are forms of water whose unstoppable might can carve their way through solid rock! So, how can we channel this power of winter, and use it to let go of whatever stands between us and the higher life we desire?
Winter is the time of the year when the forces of nature assume their most passive form. But we are discovering here that passive does not mean powerless!
The better we understand this unique power of being “passive”– and how it serves as the secret consort of all things active – the more we grow in the faith we need to be wisely passive toward whatever fears remain in us about letting go of our false self. This is why, during the dark days of winter, we should take time each day - - as often as possible - - to quietly return to the living Light that dwells in the center of ourselves.
By gathering our attention in this way, and bringing the whole of ourselves into the heart of this interior stillness, we not only collect our own forces, as nature herself is doing, but much more: in this deliberate act of gathering ourselves – and for the conscious sense of quiet contentment we find within it – we are also being released from the false idea that the source of our strength and security can be found somewhere outside us.
Once we start to see, to know in our innermost heart, that Life itself is already complete, we can let go of whatever – or whoever – would have us believe otherwise.
