"Love Again" - Honoring The Winters of Life

...A Monthly Practice Invitation

for Your Empowered, Heart-based Life...

(WATCH: Click above for the new live performance video of my original song, written with Chris Massa, "Love Again.")

IN ALL THINGS,

THERE IS A WINTER

As December begins, and the Holidays come, there's a lot to honor and work with spiritually through Winter.

Winter is a time where nature withdraws into itself. It's a time of reflection, consideration, restoration and hibernation.

It's also an invitation to reconnect to the deepest parts of ourselves, to the foundational aspects of our lives (family, friends, home, loved ones.)

Just as a tree sheds its leaves in Fall, and draws upon its inner energy to withstand the Winter cold and darkness, so do we.

Inevitably, every living being is faced in Winter with a growing literal and metaphorical darkness.

The light of the sun recedes from us, and the days grow shorter and colder.

Because of this, Winter can be a really difficult phenomena.

The cold stiffens our bodies. We can feel stagnant or stuck. The energy within us can become static and make us feel dark and heavy.

This is why Winter is a season where some feel incredibly lonely, and where suicide rates climb. If we aren't vigilant, if we don't take care of ourselves or ask for help, the cold and the darkness can feel overwhelming.

This is why The Solstice/Christmas is such a powerful metaphor.

WINTER IS A SEASON OF FAITH

As the light recedes and the darkness grows, it could be easy to believe the light will never return again.

This is why Winter, to me, is a season of faith.

Faith that the light will return again.

This is the metaphor/the message of Christmas/The Solstice, to me.

We sing, "Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant."

Come and witness: The Light has returned, again.

Christians call the light "the son." Pagans call it, "the sun."

Both are metaphors for the light within each of us.

THEY SAY,

'THIS TOO SHALL PASS'

This faith, in the return of the light, also applies to our relationships.

Relationships, like nearly everything in life, are cyclical and seasonal.

A few years ago a friend of mine asked me to offer a teaching at her wedding. Having been married for a few years, I considered the lessons I'd learned from my own marriage, and offered this insight, which was offered to me early on in my relationship:

When you first get together in a relationship, your new love is in its Spring.

Like a new tree, it grows and blossoms in the light of your shared love and attention.

With the investment of love and care, the tree continues to grow and mature in the heat of the Summer sun. The roots deepen, the trunk firms, the leaves grow bright and green. A structure is created to withstand the storms.

But eventually, Fall will come, and necessarily, parts of the tree will pass away. Who you were to each other will change, as the energy of your love and your consciousness inevitably shifts.

It is easy then, in Winter, to mistake a leafless tree for dead. It's easy to lose the faith that leaves will ever grow again.

You might even be convinced to cut the tree down completely.

But, to me, marriage is the commitment to stick with it, to have faith and continue to hold the love and light within you during the seasons of darkness.

And what I've found, through multiple seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter in my marriage, is that the sun will return again.***

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE

TO LOVE AGAIN

I think this seasonal metaphor can also be applied to where we are culturally/societally.

There is a coldness and a darkness that has swept through the hearts and minds of many these past few years. An inability to see the light in themselves or in others.

But we must keep the faith. The light will return. Love will return.

Winter will pass and Spring will come again.

It's never too late to love again.

***As a parting note, I want to clarify that I do believe that sometimes a relationship has gotten to the point that it must be surrendered so that it can become something else, especially in relationships that involve abuse. I don't mean to advocate for staying in a situation where it's in the best and highest interest of both involved to end the relationship. Sometimes that is the most loving choice.

That's all I got for now, thanks for reading!