Have you ever missed a night of sleep?
Or what about 3 or 4 nights in a row?
You feel nutty as hell, right? Like, you’re not firing on all cylinders; a cell phone with one lowly bar and 2% battery.
OK, now what about when you get a good night’s sleep, or 3 or 4 good sleeps in a row?
You’re a champ! A gold medalist, the best of the best, a full battery and all the cell signal you could ever want.
Knowing this tells you something pretty big.
It tells you that you are sensitive to the daily migration of your energy; when you’re active and when you need to rest.
Good job!
Since you’re so in touch with that daily rhythm, it means you’re already a natural at aligning with the larger rhythm; the year.
It means that you are very likely feeling a pull, a type of gravity, right this very minute.
And I would wager that this pull might feel confusing.
Because, this pull you likely feel is in direct opposition to the pull of our culture (at least in the US).
Here’s what I’m saying.
The culture its ramping up. It’s the holidays! Time to eat, socialize, decorate, and/or travel!! Right?!
But our bodies are saying, “Dude, it’s time for bed”.
But don’t take my word for it, check in real quick. Feel your body, your mind, your heart, your psyche. Where’s it at?
Raring to go? Or ready to rest.
Honor what you feel, no matter what the larger culture is doing.
Here’s what I’ll be doing, and why you won’t hear from me for a little while.
I’ll tell it like a story.
Once upon a time there was a wild-haired woman who lived on the frozen north side of a mountain. She was old but not-old; young but not-young. Every winter, just as the rhododendron curled against the cold, she followed the Black Bears deep into the mountain for a season of Dreaming.
Like the bears who dig down close to the warm heart of Earth who holds them while they sleep, this young-old wild haired woman nestles into the warm heart of her own Dreamtime. Like the bears, her rhythms slow. Like the bears, she gestates while she rests; visions and rituals are her cubs.
Some know where to find her. They know where to look for her little path through the rhododendron, following her footprints up the frozen mountain. If they wait, they will miss it; snow will come and hide the path for rest of the winter. After that, the woman is unfindable, cocooned in the great Mystery.
The ones who follow will nestle nearby, Dreaming with her. And when the light begins to peek into the year at early February, just enough for The Priestess archetype to find her way up the frozen hillside to these Dreamers, she wakes them with a warm invitation to kindle their inner flames, their life force renewed from a season of rest, and offer it to their sacred Work.
And it’s this community, the ones who Dreamed together, that will walk The Wheel of the Year together; evolving and unfurling one season at a time; the rhythm we are born to follow, a sacred sustainability.
I’m signing off next week for a month a deep rest.
Sweet Dreams!
love from the wild haired woman,
see you on the other side…
kv
