Blessed be the Winter

It’s winter.

I used to dread this season of long days of darkness.
Very little light affects my health and mental well-being.
I never had this problem when I lived in the tropics where the sun shines.

Learning to come to terms with seasonal affected disorder
combined with depression,
I endure and rise above this illness.

Here I stand at the cemetery where we buried Mother,
I learned to love winter by meditating on
the flight of the birds blowing with the wind,
the endurance of the trees digging their roots deeper, and
the tenacity of the fishes swimming aimlessly in frozen pounds.
They keep on living.

I understand that part of living is going through life’s ritual
as the earth spins on orbit that nothing stays forever.
There is no need to be afraid
for winter is only three months out of twelve.

Now is winter, I will take advantage of this period
to pick up the pieces that I dropped and left behind.
Soon enough, sunny warm days will beckon me
again to come out of hibernation.

Blessed be the winter.

“We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives. ~ Gary Zukav”