We are almost upon that time of year that I refer to as Winter’s End. It’s not really an end though. It never is and you are fooling yourself if you think so. The winter contains the bud of spring and seed of summer and so on and so forth. The truth is that as I write this, we are still in January more than a week into the new year and it’s cold outside today, baby! However, we had a sunshine-y day yesterday and I noticed that by 5 p.m. we were not yet shrouded in full dark. The fact that the days are getting longer is just a reason to celebrate for me. Confirmation of the consistent cycle of rest and renewal is comforting because there are days that seem like they will never end and yet they do and the morning next is all afresh.

This past season of rest has been very positive this year. Rest is not a concept I readily embrace. My busy brain thinks of something that must be addressed every moment. Circumstances in my life have allowed me to begin to let go of my notions of what productivity does and does not consist. Further than that, I have come to question whether the intended end result of productivity was worth the energy expended to achieve it. I have discovered that I put a lot of busy work in my path when I don’t want to deal with a thought or feeling. Yet the busy work does not dispel the uncomfortable thought or feeling, but puts it off to be dealt with later. So, the winter has been a good opportunity to examine how I expend my energy.

As a result, I’ve allowed myself to rest. I feel a little guilty saying that because we are so conditioned to being in a busy state, that being in any other state in socially unacceptable. Which is ridiculous in consideration of how deeply regenerative and restorative true rest is to our whole being. I’ve allowed myself to rest and it has been a good and positive thing for me.

In each extreme rests its polar opposite: dark and light, rest and motion, sleep and wake. Without one the other does not exist. So, I embrace this period of rest knowing that it is impermanent and will give way to a different state of being – just as the winter recedes and the air warms.

Keri lives and rests in Boyle Street.