It’s a shame we’re not taught to contemplate the changes our bodies/minds/spirit go through with the change of seasons. It’s been a source of some of my deepest revelations to note that I too am part of these cycles. So lovely! Not SAD (seasonal affective disorder) 🙂
I was happy to read Laura Kerr’s piece just as I was feeling spring approaching too. My entire being tingles with the change! I’ve made brief mention of the movement in the fall before. But spring, is, without doubt, more exciting.
The above are thoughts that came to mind when I read Laura Kerr’s post from which I excerpt these two lovely paragraphs:
Spring’s bursting energy is infectious, and to catch its fever is to feel the need for greater embodiment, movement, and creative expression (and hopefully without judging the efforts). The natural world’s passage from winter to spring — the wet mulch and dead matter literally feeding new life — models how the psyche is meant to turn in periods of deep change.
Mental illness is a state, which need not be understood as chronic, although sometimes it is repetitive in the lessons it tries to teach. Auguste Comte called madness “excess subjectivity,” which I think points to the Western affliction of living too much from the head, while the body and soul cry out for their recognition and integration. And this integration is not a final point to be reached, but like the seasons, is faced again and again, for there is always more to learn, experience, and love. (continue reading)
It makes sense to me to embrace these changes and in so doing spend time contemplating and integrating the message of the seasons and the universe within my body/mind/soul. This is how all of creation speaks to us. This is one of the ways we get the information we need so that we might individuate.
I’m so glad to now understand this wondrous process so that I might choose to ride the waves rather than suppress them or otherwise try to run away from my very nature. There may be a time and place to hide from and/or slow down the process, but that, too should be a choice.
I’m closing this post with a quote from a friend on twitter:
The term “interconnectness” has people imagining psychic throwlines between us. It’s more that we are all lit by the same lamp. — @Kalieezchild
I love this little pithy statement which to me also speaks to how we are connected with all of life and creation. It’s all lit from the same lamp and so the seasons too are part of that and move within us as much as the rest of nature.
(reposted from last year)