A new year arrives
briskly. Winter is coldest
Just before the Spring.
Hello Friends of Flying Needle!
Happy Lesser Cold!
- fifth winter solar node -
Hope this finds you well during these interesting times!
Seasonal Musings & Reflections
Welcome to 2025!
It's a brisk 27°F in Chapel Hill this morning. While our days have begun to lengthen post-Solstice, we are still firmly held within Yin's darkness. Within this embrace, if we look closely we may be able to see and hear the signs that Spring begins next month.
If you are in the Piedmont, have you seen the tulip poplar seeds falling, or heard chorus frogs on a warmer day?
What are the harbingers of Spring where you are?
My kiddo was traveling with her Mom for the holidays, so I took the opportunity to spend more time in quiet contemplation. Both Christmas Day and New Year's Day became retreat days. While I have been a daily meditator for many years, still from time to time there are runs in which I feel resistance to practicing. What I re-remembered during my Christmas Day retreat was that, for me, the best medicine for that resistance is to practice more. Not in a “more is better/go big or go home” manner, but to give myself more time to unwind, soften, and relax through the layers of resistance that are arising. I started my practice sessions with connecting to my gratitude for this life. After some moments of appreciation, I began a 6 second inhale/6 second exhale continuous breath rhythm. I focused those breaths on actively relaxing face, throat, chest, diaphragm, pelvis, hands and feet. From there I would settle into simply sitting. Reconnecting to active relaxation to open my practice sessions seems to have helped me melt through this most recent period of resistance to practice.
Do you have a contemplative practice?
How do you navigate resistance to your practice if/when it arises?
Speaking of appreciation, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of you for accompanying me through these musings and reflections. For those of you who have entrusted me, and our work, with some aspect of your care, I extend that gratitude even further. It is a sincere honor and deep pleasure to be of service in the small ways that I am able to help reduce suffering on this Earth. I resolve to continue to do what I can to cultivate the capacities and skills which enable me to serve in this way.
May your Winter days be filled with beauty, mystery, and friendship!
May you and your kin feel both rooted and free!
May we walk in gratitude with our Ancestors!
May all being and becoming receive nourishment!
Light returning. Days
Lengthen, Yang waxes. Springtime
Prepares to arrive.
It is my sincere hope that you have found something of use in these words.
If you know folks who you feel would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it their way! Thank you!
Wishing you and all your relations wellbeing and good medicine!
With gratitude,
Taran
Comments