Happy New Year in 2024

Happy New Year!  Today is the first day of 2024.  The rolling over of the year always boggles my mind a bit.  I think about all of the firsts of the year: first cup of tea, first sunrise, first shower, first hike, first time seeing a friend.  It feels like a new beginning, a chance to start fresh.  To me this is hopeful, even amidst the struggles, violence, and war that fill our beautiful world.  

I was inspired by this NYT article by artist and author Mira Jacob about her confusion as to how humans can be in our current situation of suffering, and how we need to use our imaginations to bring us out of where we are currently.

South American Solstice

As many of you know, I traveled to South America for two weeks during Winter Break.  My brother lives in Uruguay, and we had the opportunity to visit him and his family.  During the Autumn Season in Portland I spent a lot of time and energy preparing myself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for WINTER!  Morgan and I guided our Wintering Retreat, and a lot of my thoughts had been around how to navigate Winter in a beautiful and sustainable way.  

THEN, I found myself on an airplane headed to the Southern Hemisphere; a place where they were about to celebrate the Summer Solstice.  This is a part of our world that is currently filled with intense sunlight, long days, vivid colors, flowering plants, hot weather, and blue skies.  Entwined with these effervescent expressions of Summer Season, I was also able to spend time with my brother and his family, along with my parents.  Vast amounts of love and care were also injected into time spent in the Sunny South.  I entered a Portal of Summer; a temporary place that offered the gifts of the vivacious Summer season.  At first, my body felt a little confused with the shock of light and warmth, but I adjusted quickly!

On December 27th we returned to Portland.  The cold, gray, rainy weather was a shock to my system after experiencing Second Summer.  Between time change adjustment, darkness at 4:38pm, lack of sleep, and saying good-bye to my family, I was feeling deep sadness.  On December 31st I went on a solo walk around Whitaker Ponds, a natural area that I know very well.  The smell of the Earth comforted me; I saw many plant, bird, and animal beings that I know well.  Returning there felt like a Homecoming, where old friends welcomed me back from Summer Land and into my current reality.  I met Blue Heron gobbling down fish, turkey tail mushrooms growing on a log, bush tit birds flitting in a flock as light as butterflies on Winter air.  These beings brought me back into Winter, and I realized that Winter is what I NEED right now.  I need the muted color palate that soothes, the shorter days that invite rest, the darkness that beckons turing inward, the rain that washes the World clean.  Winter is where I am meant to be right now in my personal process of being Human.  Second Summer was gorgeous; I wouldn't trade that sensuous experience.  AND, I am content to be in Winter.