Last week with the cold temperatures, and fresh snow several days in a row, I felt like I was
Hibernating
While part of me wanted to go out for a walk, most of me said, “Forget it. I’m staying in where it’s warm.”
I read a lot, made photographs inside the house and through the windows of our house, and rested. The old Lutheran Protestant part of my brain was saying that I should get busy and do something.
But then I remembered that I don’t do shoulds. And I do listen to my body and what it says. Clearly it was saying that I needed to rest. So I rested.
Sometimes resting and hibernating are just what a body needs. Soon I hope to walk outside again. But for now I am content to read books, cuddle with Gracie my cat, hug my sweet and ever loving Jon, and hibernate. (Though today I plan to do some Soma Yoga which feels like resting, and a few physical therapy exercises aimed at reducing some pain issues I’ve been having.)
Here is a Mary Oliver poem that I found today that expresses the recent snowfalls beautifully.
White-Eyes
In winterall the singing is inthe tops of the treeswhere the wind-birdwith its white eyesshoves and pushesamong the branches.Like any of ushe wants to go to sleep,but he’s restless—he has an idea,and slowly it unfoldsfrom under his beating wingsas long as he stays awake.But his big, round music, after all,is too breathy to last.So, it’s over.In the pine-crownhe makes his nest,he’s done all he can.I don’t know the name of this bird,I only imagine his glittering beaktucked in a white wingwhile the clouds—which he has summonedfrom the north—which he has taughtto be mild, and silent—thicken, and begin to fallinto the world belowlike stars, or the feathersof some unimaginable birdthat loves us,that is asleep now, and silent—that has turned itselfinto snow.— Mary Oliver
Are you hibernating too, during these cold January days?
May you walk in beauty.
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