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| a central washington winter a few years ago. |
I woke up this morning to a broken furnace and no heat at my
house. The outside temperature was 1 degree. One degree. I am not a winter
person. I’ll take a summer day any day – everyday.
I was complaining about the weather to a friend who is a New
England native and they said, this weather is for the development of the soul.
It stopped my words and made me think. The development of the soul? I've been
thinking about those words today and realized the truth in them. The way in
which winter/bitter cold forces me to dive into myself/move slower/just be in a
way that I find so challenging.
In this way winter offers a gift to me that the fun
lightness/energy/fun of summer never could. I rode my bike to work yesterday,
it was 16 degrees. I've never ridden my bike in weather colder than 20 degrees.
It was a shocking stinging pain despite all the layers. I found a new level of
endurance and mind over matter in the cadence of the ride, a determination and
focus that I had to access.
And then I read this quote in another blog this morning:
“When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer,
then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is
not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. . . . Home is
neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.”
- Hermann Hesse
All thoughts flowing together, all we have is this moment.
Express gratitude for the elements that help us dive inside to that place to
better understand “home”, to develop our souls or open our eyes to new layers
of awareness. Whatever words you associate with the process of understanding
all the things we don’t understand.
Much love to you all.
Stay warm and embrace the season.
3 comments:
Another one of life's challenges, indeed. Though they can be a sort of awakening, or at least an inspiration to discover new things about oneself, you’d still look forward to the comfortable warmth at the end of the day. Anyway, I hope your furnace got fixed soon after. Take care!
Jodi Bennett @ Marsh Heating
While I may enjoy the wonders of winter from time to time, I don’t think I’d want to go through one without a working furnace. I hope you were able to have it fixed soon after. Good day!
Dennis Cannon @ Laird And Son
I am also a Summer person. I hate the cold. Last year, our heater went out, too. We were using space heaters and the oven to heat the house for four days while my father tried to fix it. Of course, our heater is not common and it took so long to find the one piece we needed.
Shayne Gustafson @ Berico Heating and Air
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