Open the lens
Like many people, I struggle a bit in the winter due to the lack of light. All you have to do is look back at the pictures that I post to see that I am attracted to the sun and how light affects everything! Every summer, I am perking along happily, wondering how it is that the short months of the winter can feel so heavy for me. I do my best, and I go away when I can (Costa Rica next week - Yay!).
This week, during my meditation, I had a great insight. The world is no less amazing or beautiful in the winter, but what is necessary is to change one’s mindset to actually see it. The way that it came to me was of an image of a camera lens adjusting its aperture to a lower light level, or even an iris opening in darker surroundings. While beauty and energy is shining brightly and is so easily accessible in the warmer weather - think bright green trees, colored flowers - to find the gifts in this weather simply requires a deeper looking - like a treasure hunt! I have been putting this insight to work for me this week when out walking. Sunday was a cloudy day, but I found the sun in this beautiful ice pattern. The lack of leaves on the trees allows us to see the beauty of the branches stark against the sky, and who in the northeast has not been wowed by the sky during a winter sunset or the brightness of the stars in the many clear night skies we have been lucky to have?
So, if you, too, live in a place of winter, rather than pine away for a different time or place, I invite you to open your lens and see the beauty that is right in front of you! Get outside when you can, and, when the weather is bitter cold, peek out the window or, if you are lucky enough to have a fireplace, enjoy the leaping flames of a fire!
Copyright 2019 Nancy C Murray
Nancy C Murray is a yoga teacher, yoga therapist, Reiki master and spiritual leader. She leads public and private yoga classes and healing sessions and also retreats and transformational journeys.
