Imbolc \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Valentine Moon<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the eyes and ears are open,
\neven the leaves on the trees teach like
\npages from the scriptures.\u201d
\nKabir<\/p>\n
What then can the winter teach us, when the leaves have fallen and the plants are quiet? \u00a0Our gardens fall away, buried by white snow, their shapes changed, smoothed, flowing. \u00a0No evidence of their fertility, or, rather, the only evidence is of its end, brown stems above the snow. \u00a0A lesson that the same place can be two things. \u00a0Green and white. \u00a0Fruitful and barren. \u00a0Hot and cold.<\/p>\n
On very cold days the air has a clarity, a snap to its presence. \u00a0It insists on your attention and your care.<\/p>\n
The cold and the snow preach purity, the willing of one thing. \u00a0Change by lowering the temperature. \u00a0Think of the things in the world that could be made better by lowering their temperature. \u00a0Winter is witness to the power of such change, its possibility and its possibilities.<\/p>\n
Blue sky, clear air, snow shaping the earth and wind driven snow. \u00a0Then, low clouds, gray skies, snow falling fast and faster, the onrush of blizzard. \u00a0The humbling of the machine. \u00a0The reconstructive surgeon of the landscape. \u00a0We do not own this place; we’re visitors. \u00a0It comes with its own reality, one in which we exist by sufferance.<\/p>\n
Winter teaches us humility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imbolc \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Valentine Moon \u201cWhen the eyes and ears are open, even the leaves on the trees teach like pages from the scriptures.\u201d Kabir What then can the winter teach … Continue reading When the Student is Cold, Winter is the Teacher<\/span>