By Ashley Devers

As I push back the curtains in the morning, a vast valley of snow, dusted trees and white rolling hills lays before my eyes. I can see and feel the frigid temperature that surrounds the walls of my house. For I love the winter mornings where I step outside into a muffled silence, feel the flakes of snow fall softly onto my arms, and witness my exhales poke forward in a puff of steam.

Winter is truly magical and mystical to me. It is a time of the year that has its own distinct feeling, sight and taste. Although it comes and goes every year, this frigid season always seems to leave me in a new sense of wonder and “ah”.

Winter is also deeply transformative, and elements and species change drastically during this time. Things that were just alive, warm and colorful, are now bare, dormant and monochrome. The animals that were prowling the mountains and rivers have slipped into a slumber and slower pace of life. The Aspen branches that once held beautiful orange, green and yellow leaves, are now bare and empty. The rivers that were rushing are now frozen and slowed to a trickle. The hiking trails I walked on every day are closed and covered in deep snow with its path unmarkable and untouched.

Yet, I love the pace and the rest that comes with Winter. Remaining within the warm, cozy quarters of my home in the mist of this frigid wonderland keeps me grateful. For the sparks that fly off the fireplace that burns through the eve reminds me that what may seem less active and bare on the outside, cannot match the churning of life that resides within.

The seasons have come and gone in their very order so that what churns or burns in the very core of the Earth can remain intact and grow. The snow holds the land in a frigid embrace of protection. And beneath the snow lies the leaves that fell in the autumn, as they shield the soil and disintegrate to feed the land. Beneath the leaves remains the warmth stored from the summer sun, which holds closely the life that has burrowed deep into the ground. And even deeper reside the roots of the buds that are preparing to pop up in the next spring season.

During winter we do not see below the blanket of snow or hear beyond the muffled quiet of the frozen embrace. But what is unseen, un-sensed and unknown to us below the surface, is a magical churning of life and co-interaction between the seasons with a distinct and reasoned way of Being in this world.

 The times when we wake up to a whiteness and frozen bareness covering all that we had known and held close to us, our ego or the “you” will creep up and desire a warmer and more fruitful climate. It will throw up resistance to the slowed down pace, the bare branches, and the frigid soil that has come to be.

 But our Soul or the Divine within knows deeply how to flow with the seasons. It knows what lies below the bareness and what is churning and transforming at the core, even if we cannot see it or sense it. For what lies within us is a collection of the seasons that have come before us and a preparation for the next that lies ahead. We recognize the unknowable and purposeful churning of life that happens within is well alive and always provide.

This winter, let yourself seep into this slower pace, this time of rest and this frigid embrace. Find a different kind of “ah” in the wonderland that surrounds you, even if all that you may know seems bare and stagnant. And find comfort in the warm churning that is taking place beneath your surface. You are safe in this season and this chapter of your life, and you are well prepared deeper than you know, or that you can see, for what lies ahead.