Thank goodness Spring is finally here! Yea for warm weather! No more winter!
This is what I keep hearing from others in these early days of March, as we journey through the final weeks of winter and into the energies of the Spring Equinox. It seems that we forget how precious and powerful the winter really is. The cold leads us indoors and into more internal places. Winter offers us a wonderful opportunity for the hibernation of our Soul. It’s our opportunity to rest, slow down, to learn to Be more than Do.
Why Winter & Cold Is Important To Plants:
Winter cold pro
vides plants with vernalization. This physiological process of vernalization happens in some plants where the flowers, or sometimes the seeds, must go through a prolonged period of cold in order to blossom or germinate in the spring, which is a requirement for some species.
The amount of cold required by a plant is measured in chill hours. (Yes, that’s really what it’s called.) Chill hours are roughly the number of hours between the temperatures of 32-45 degrees Fahrenheit. Plants have a process that has evolved over eons so they know when to start growing in the spring, and that knowing also accounts for how many “chilling hours” each plant needs.
Why Winter Is Important To Us:
We all need chill hours.
We all need time to rest, time to go underground, so to speak, and allow ourselves that internal process that we intuitively understand even if we don’t always like it. We need time to sink deep into the earth, in an energetic way, and receive the nutrients and quiet time that will support us as we go out into the world, especially during the busy warm seasons. We need these chill hours to prepare our seed selves so that we can blossom and grow to our fullest potential.
If we avoid the deepest, darkest, coldest days, how are we to gain the strength to carry us through the rest of our journey? These symbolic chill hours of our lives are vital to the process, vital to our growth, and vital to our continued personal evolution. We must take the time to walk through the places that we might perceive as uncomfortable, and let ourselves just stay, right there, in that place. Learn to breathe into those uncomfortable places, within and without, and let them shift from stillness, instead of fighting and creating persistence through resistance. We need these cold times to help us flower when the timing is perfect.
The In-Between Times
The in-between times are not always the easiest. The most uncomfortable time is the in-between, when things have not quite ful
ly shifted and that stable sense of clarity is not quite felt.
The in-between of the seasons when you wear a coat in the morning and shorts in the afternoon and you never know what to expect. The in-between when you must take a leap and not know if the Universe is there to catch you. The in-between where you must learn to trust your gut and relax, even though everything in you screams to do the opposite.
It’s time to embrace this in-between space, when the winter is not quite finished and the Spring is not quite fully begun. Humans love when things are clear, comfortable and cozy. But the comfort zone is not where the deepest magic is. The cruise control of life is not where powerful transformation takes place.
It’s great to have the relaxed warm months to get busy and have fun. There is a necessity in all the seasons and they each carry their lessons and gifts.
So let us embrace each season of the year, each season of our lives, so we can more fully appreciate each moment and be present. Let us embrace each day, regardless of snow or sun or rain, and really soak in the nourishment that comes from all of it, from each different experience, from each precious moment.
What if we just take the time to really be present to this time of year, the last few weeks of winter? What if we stop rushing headlong into Spring and truly sink deep into these shifts of cold into warm, darkness into light. What if we just be in the here and now and soak up every morsel of nourishment that is offered from this time?
Let’s take this time and relish our chill hours.
*Earth Goddess wall-hanging by Wendy Andrews
