I believe that there is something deep down within each of us that wants to snuggle down into the comforting silence of a winter morning. Nature is reminding us to stop and to listen, to let go of our hectic doing and addictive thinking. But, most of us do not stop.
A great many people jump out of bed, chug down a cup of coffee and get out the snow blower. Instead of sitting quietly and listening to the snowflakes gently accumulating on the landscape, they hurry down the highway, joining millions of other motorists on the slippery freeway in an effort to get to work “on time.” A lot of them end up in automobile crashes, some fatal, or in multi-car pile-ups.
We have designed a society in which people must play this monotonous game because it has designed a world that is dependent upon money and consumerism. It has built a system that creates anxiety and fear in the population, where few acknowledge their natural state of simply “being.” It is as though someone has spun the wheel of life, causing it to go faster and faster. True, life is always moving in an ever and onward upward spiral. Life does not and will not stop; but we can control the speed in which we participate in it. We can settle into the serenity of the season and of the moment. We can release all past and future events, thus releasing worry and anxiety. We can allow ourselves to be completely absorbed in “now.” We can stop, breathe slowly, and immerse ourselves in the blissful silence of a winter morning.
