On Wintering
Musings on Heart Powered Human Leadership
I am a child of the sun, born into the lavish, light warmth and vast, pacific seas of great Southern Lands. However, my DNA is 100% European and my genetic code must remember the ‘winter wolf’ at the door, yet I personally do not — although sleet, icy winds and endless grey days are definitely not my happy place.
I often want to hide in the European winter as the external weather, seems to match my internal weather; a bit empty, gloomy and somehow unproductive. Thats exactly how it was this winter. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Winter always takes me deeper to knowing something important; the value of the light in my life, what I actually do want to do and with whom becomes clearer in the bleak winter, enervated as I am, lacking the huge reserves of energy that I often exude.
Wintering has me feel all the feels. Sad, lost, alone, hopeless, helpless — even depressed and it is in meeting these with some occasional grace I discover a kind of fragile, vulnerable truth; that I don’t have the energy for keeping up any conditioned responses to ‘What a good girl should do or be to be loved’ – my conditioned responses dictating to me what it means to be lovable and what I should be doing – and yet I notice in my listlessness, something profound about the energy I do have for a thing, as it’s telling me clearly what definitely is for me – by virtue of the fact I have no energy for anything else. It’s pointing towards my joy, that
shines out like a beacon in the night – direct messaging my soul.
The other gift of wintering is the incontrovertible visibility of the simple fact – what goes up must come down. And it is in the down parts I meet the shadow — within which — lies the seeds of the next thing that is wanting to be born. But first a true meeting with shadow must take place – a welcoming and owning – it requires a deep surrendering and embrace – it requires me to truly live from the knowing – that ‘All (of me) is welcome’.
As Rumi says ‘Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it – and embrace them.’
or
As Jung says: ‘The only way out is through’
or
As I say: ‘You gotta feel what is real to heal and and reveal’
Last night I dreamt of birthing a baby – the birth was effortless… this dream generally means or representsL
‘Emotional rebirth and renewal. It may suggest that you are releasing past emotional burdens, healing from traumas, or experiencing a profound emotional transformation. This dream can signify emotional growth, resilience, and the capacity to start afresh.’
Well — if that doesn’t sound like Spring has arrived, I don’t know what does. After all it has always been the way of things… after Winter, always Spring.
Working with Changemakers to let their wisdom lead real change.
Work with me one to one — Gamechanging Leadership Wisdom Retreats
