elizabethlevett

Season of diminishing light.

There’s a law in painting where objects

observed in the distance

offer fewer details, less contrast.

Mountains, trees, houses literally fade

in the distance.

Winter has its own law,

that there must be a time of diminishing

light.

Winter’s darkness can bring melancholy, and introspection.

It can feel a little uncomfortable, this darkness, this stillness,

and yet, this frozen landscape of aches, disappointments, missed

opportunities, and loss

is somehow exactly as it should be.

Winter isn’t meant to be as active, as stimulating as we

might wish.

Winter’s law is a call to rest, to reflect, to allow

the seeds we plant to germinate in their own

time.

This reflective time is at once both useful and

generative

in its wisdom.

Diminishing details, diminishing distractions.

Diminishing contrast, diminishing conflict.

Diminishing light, reassuring softness.

Until

the light returns, the snow inside us melts.

The solstice comes and with it the

wellspring, the thaw,

the melting.

Keep winter. Keep still. Rest.

And know the light is coming.