This time of year, there can be a lot of energy around moving forward. We get this burst of inspiration and hope that comes with the New Year and that can sometimes be commercialized into “doing” something with our new “resolutions”. But is important to remember that we are still in the season of Water according to ancient Chinese tradition, and water is associated with winter. You may have heard me talk about the concept of wintering, which is the concept that this time of year is a time for slowing down, snuggling in, and allowing space to just BE. The water energy invites us to find this place of peaceful observation within us, that can sit at the banks of the rivers of emotions and observe. This is the Alchetype (my word, and more about what that means in a different blog coming soon), of the Philosopher. The one who gains wisdom and knowledge by going deep, getting still, and observing.
This year, I have really been working with the Water energy of winter, and I decided to embody the Philosopher by going beach for two weeks in January to get still and observe. Of course, I did not go to the sunny, sandy, warm beaches where I might spend my days floating away and sipping on my Mai Tai, my preferred form of escapism, but the brisk beaches of the Carolina coast where I still had to be in pants and sweatshirts. No escaping for me… And I challenged myself to not touch my work, but to sit, make space, observe, and gather the wisdom that comes from stillness. This was incredibly powerful for me. I learned many things but one of the most valuable things I learned was that I don’t think I have ever in my adult life truly rested. I don’t mean sleep, I sleep, I LOVE sleep. But I mean actually taking the time to do nothing. I realized that my “nothing” time is often FULL of DOING! I am thinking, planning, and organizing. In fact, even when I have taken “down time” in the past, I still used it as an opportunity to dream, plan and organize my work. Some of this I realized is that my work and my being are so deeply entangled. Who I AM and what I DO have become one and the same, so it can be more challenging for me to separate and make space. It feels a little bit like a DUH moment when I wrote this down as this major AHA moment, but the truth is, I often know something in my mind and believe it deeply but haven’t fully embodied it, so when that moment of embodiment happens, it is pretty powerful, even though I “knew” it all along.
What the spaciousness of rest can teach us is vast and magical (of course) but when we really embody it, we are making gigantic spaces to release what is no longer serving us and nurture the seeds of what we intend to create. A seedling that has been planted is not pushing, it is not planning, or organizing, it is just being. It is in full alignment with its divine destiny. It knows what it is here to do and what it will become. And it trusts in diving timing. It is simply being, swaddled in earth energy, being completely nurtured and nourished.
During this time though, something incredibly powerful is happening. It is being reSourced. It is gathering all of the nutrients and energy it needs to spring forth when the right time comes. In my favorite YA books by Sarah Maas (I have mentioned her books before, yes, yes I have), when the characters are about to face some big event that they will need their strength and resources and their magic, they start tunneling into their magic, internally diving deeper and deeper, pulling their magic into them. I think this is what the seed is doing, tunneling into its magic, pulling the magic into them so that they have the energy they need to break through the soil and grow.
Magic as you have probably heard me say is the intersection of alignment with Source, intention, and creativity. And it can be hard to make enough space to hold this energy. To know who you are here to be, to set the intention of living that truth, and then to surrender to divine timing and wait can be incredibly uncomfortable. Magic vibrates and longs to spring forward, but if we do not hold it long enough, and we release too early (um, can you say edging???) then we don’t have the energy we need to not only spring up, but also expand, grow, bloom, and fruit. I will write a whole other blog around the metaphor of the sexual tension between water and wood, which is the energy of the transition from winter to spring. Right now, we are still seeds, buried, tunneling into our magic, holding it, and BEING.
I encourage you to try to align with this season, to practice the Alchetype of the Philosopher, and to make space to be still, to release, to observe, to align, and to just simply BE, and allow for something new to rise.