Dancing to the Rhythm of the Seasons is a way to Reflect and Celebrate your Connection with all of Life
It feels delicious to tune into the movement of the new season. Notice bright green buds emerging, babies being born, and the days getting longer. The rhythm of the seasons is the song the earth sings as it turns. Dancing with that rhythm keeps you balanced, and connected. From March-September, the northern half of our planet points toward the sun and we get more energy to get work done. Being aware of these cycles helps us appreciate the phase we’re in now – because it will pass. My friend Harriet Witt has created lovely, mind-expanding signposts for our global cycle. You can write to her to get a weekly audio blogspot about Where we Our in Our Journey Around the Sun. harriet at passengerplanet.com.
As winter gives way to spring and new life, we are naturally called to clean out the closets, shed weight we accumulated in winter, and reset outdated patterns. Letting go is as important as building in the big picture. Go large with your perspective for a moment and see where you are in your personal cycle of expansion and contraction.
For an easy, gentle liver cleanse during the month of March, try eating one raw beet every day: grated in a salad, or chewed like an apple as an afternoon snack. A daily cinnamon stick can serve the same purpose. Chewing on a stick can also help curb between meal cravings.
Dancing with the Cycles of Nature
This is also a great time to revisit healthy practices that may have fallen by the wayside like a breathing, yoga, a meditation practice, or even exercising regularly. Don’t beat yourself for anything not already in balance or that you dropped over the winter. Consider today as day one and begin, one step at a time. The spring equinox (March 21) is a great focal point to rebalance and adjust the inflow and out flow of our energy and use. The rhythms of life sustain us if we honor and live by them.
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The End of the Cycle – Death Over Dinner
I had a sweet Death Over Dinner experience with my book club last week. We each shared expectations and hopes about our own deaths and shed a few tears over the deaths of loved ones. It was interesting to hear how widely our experiences of dissociation or connection through death varied. We practiced saying, “my mom died” rather than the more oblique, “I lost my mom,” or “she passed” – the point being to call it like it is and become more comfortable with it in the process.
For the most part, we agreed that quality of life is more important than quantity. Each of us prefer to die without pain or protracted illness. But it was sobering to look around the table at these friends I’ve known for so long and realize that probably not all of us will get our wish. I wondered, who among us will develop cancer? Who will die in a car accident? Develop dementia?… Even as I asked those uncomfortable questions, I said a prayer of gratitude for our long connection and this brave and intimate discussion. We can now bear witness to each others’ wishes and hold space as a community of friends. It was deeply empowering. Death is part of the natural cycle, too.
Celebrate the season
As the spring opens around us, we can connect with the joy of renewal. This includes honoring the bittersweet foundation of decay and death. Even if you live in a city or suburban place, you can find a handful of soil somewhere and stick your nose in it. Appreciate where it came from. Soil is the composted and recycled bodies of trees, insects, other plants and animals. It gives us life – food and oxygen – via the plants that grow in it. Native Americans would put a dead fish in the ground along with corn seeds to nourish the new plants. If you look with an open heart, you will recognize death as an intimate part of life. Our awareness of death gives us the gift of appreciation for life.
Whatever you’re occupied with today, take a moment to notice the spring air. Appreciate your lungs that pump it in and out, and your aliveness in the moment. Without being revolutionary, that simple moment may wind up being the most profound of your day.
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