Apparently there are people who put stuff in the ground in the winter. I've noticed that some of my more industrious neighbors have all manner of random cabbages growing, as if we might mistake these for colorful flowers. I just don't have the wherewithall to do such a thing. My garden is such an intense amount of work that I cannot imagine doing it all year round. Just like the garden in a temperate climate needs to sleep in the winter, so do I!
It's interesting to me that, in spite of how we seem to forget this in our modern lives, we are intricately tied to the rhythm of the seasons. The holidays we celebrate at this time of year point to the need we have for the sun, how we miss the light and warmth in winter, ergo we rely on holidays full of candles and lights to brighten us. In addition, we pad ourselves for winter by eating much, much more than usual. Note the abundant commercials in January for joining health clubs to rid yourself of those unwanted pounds put on between Halloween and Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa. Well of course we are padding ourselves with fat! Regardless of our modern lives, we cannot fight our evolutionary programming. We are programmed at the deepest, cellular level to seek out extra fat to keep us warm through the cold winter months. This is not to say that everyone blows up like a buffalo over the holidays, it just explains why the urge to overeat is so damn strong!
But now that those holidays are past, I find myself longing for warmth and sun, for green leaves and animals. The months from January to March are especially bleak, which is why we humans have come up with more random celebrations to help spice things up and keep us from committing suicide before spring!
This year, the biggest attention getter in my area is, of course, the inauguration of Barack Obama as President. However the inauguration itself is only the beginning of a new chapter in our American life and hopefully an opening to an era of peace and justice.
But we also rely on more regular occurrences to occupy us: Mardi Gras, Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine's Day, St. Paddy's Day and other strangely invented holidays which occur during this time to keep us from acknowledging the gloom of the season.
I wonder, however, if these distractions are necessary. Do we as humans perhaps require a period of each year during which we slow down and reflect on our lives? It is a perfect time to curl up in a warm blanket and read, read something to challenge you, to make you think, to make you care, to change your world view or introduce you to another's perspective. This is not to say these things can't happen any time of year, but winter seems perfectly poised to offer the potential for us to focus inward, to think, to dwell.
Just a thought.
