"I've seen too many stars to let the darkness overwhelm me" Macrina Wiederkher
I spent a week in silence at a retreat house in Guelph this past week, it is a practice of mine to go on a silent retreat on a yearly basis. Some people don't understand my need for that one week of silence, they don't understand the need to unplug myself and go inward and just be....
I spent some time at a retreat house that has acres and acres of farm land, which at the moment is completely covered in snow. It has walking trails where you could walk and explore the land, which I did, relentlessly every day that I was there. It dawned on me as I was walking on these trails, of how desolate the earth looks in the winter time, it looks absolutely peaceful and yet there is nothing growing on the earth at the moment, at least not on our area of the world.
This frozen and desolate land, which, in a few weeks will be thawed out and the land will begin to thrive again, we'll be able to see the rich fertile earth once more and the trees will grow new leaves, flowers will bloom, fruits and vegetables will be abundant. The darkness and stark of winter will give way into spring....it always does, naturally, effortlessly. There is no effort on our part for the cycle to happen, it just does, just as night gives into day, the ocean gives into the earth, a continuous flow of rhythm and energy always evolving.
There is a faith on my part that this will indeed happen...that winter is not forever, darkness in not eternal, I'm hopeful in the earths resilience. I'm hope-filled in my own winter moments, my own reality and my moments of solitude. The stark, desolate spaces within me will give into abundance, and be fertile and thrive....I choose to believe in hope.
