Winter is here.

For many that means the colorful, sparkly, chatty holidays have given way to the long, cold slog of winter. Holidays and vacation days over, the temps plunge and the snow falls, dropping us into a distinctly barren, stark season that can be quite an adjustment.

For me, the big swing into the stark season takes a bit of getting used to each year. One of the keys is to find time to be still, and to notice what really is present in the landscape of what is left.

In fact, the same applies for all the big changes in life. Big shifts require us to slow down, and focus on what is before us now in this moment. Because beauty and joy are still there for the noticing, if we have eyes to see them the small, lovely things tucked inside this stark season. 

The porcelain moon
strung high and remote
in blackest sky
gave way today
to the blazing white snow,
now heavy
on the wet-streaked branches.

A stark season begun,
bringing sweet peppermint tea
and ginger snaps
wrapped in soft, warm sweaters
shielding from the cold, rasping wind.

My sleepy cats draped on radiators,
drunk in warmth
and the quiet of snow-muffled yards
watching with half-closed eyes
the shuffling of fluffed feathers
in the rosebush out back.

~

Relephant:

A Grounding Prayer for the Autumn Equinox.

~

Author: Carolyn Shannon 

Editor: Katarina Tavčar

Photo: Pavun Prikutam/Unsplash