EP 159: THE MEDICINE OF WINTER: TENDING YOUR HEARTH

Holy hand grenades Batman, we made it to the last episode of Season 5. ​
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Autumn is being replaced by the slow march of the mystery right up to our doorstep. The sun has left the building. You don’t have to go home. But you can’t stay here.
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The medicine of winter is upon us. The moment post-surrender. The death has come and gone. It’s the moment of now what?

Winter is the deep dive into the void. It seems empty. Lonely even. But this is the season where everything is born.

The Winter Solstice is the darkest night. It’s time to start our return to the light.

This ​is my final episode of the year, and it’s all about (you guessed it) embracing the slow stillness of winter. Inviting silence and contemplation all the way in.

Seeing if this year, you can revel in the gifts of solitude as well as the warm celebratory feasts and gatherings. Listen to the silence and hear beyond time.

It’s about staying.

Attuning your pace to that of the nervous system instead of the mind. It’s cozy socks in front of a crackling fire, cup of hot cacao in your mug, allowing every cell to let go. To sigh. To sleep and to dream.
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Because without the dream, no seeds would ever unfurl or bloom. No creations would ever find room to grace us with their companionship. No sprites or beings would tickle us with wonder and hope and get us into a little mischievous mayhem.

What arises is the tending. The integration of practice. The magic in the mundane. It’s staring into the eyes of a very cute baby cow at the farm down the road and seeing God. It’s putting one foot in front of the other when you feel the most lost, the most alone, the most afraid.

It’s doing all the things you know will make you feel better instead of just complaining about how you need to do them and wondering why everything always stays the same.

It’s the waiting in the sweet unknown, the wild timelessness. The uncertainty of being.

Winter is the time of tending your hearth. Creating nourishment, rhythm, and stability through consistent practice. Doing the basics and doing them well. In devotion. And making sure you take the sweet time to get the rest and care you need from yourself so that you have the resources to bloom again come Spring.

It has been a beautiful year of immense growth and deep challenge. I continue to surprise myself with the capacity to choose to face hard things and to experience miracles. Often in the same moment. It’s always both/and.

I am grateful and humbled by the medicine of life. It is a privilege to do this work and I am very grateful.
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In this episode, we are closing down the year with honor to the light, in reverence to the fruitful darkness. The necessary spaces of stillness and emptiness. When there is nowhere to go and nothing else to be done. Can you stay? Can you tend the hearth? Can you chop wood and carry water when the party is over? Let’s get into it.

Love,

Sinclair