WINTER FEAST FOR THE SOUL 2009
WHY WINTER?
By Valerie Skonie
I just spent the past weekend with a friend from California. Barbara is a psychotherapist who practices in Santa Rosa California. Barbara came here for the Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival that took place last weekend. The DVD we prepared as a promo piece for the Winter feast was shown as a "short subject" before the premier of the one-hour documentary: "Rumi Returning".
Naturally we were quite immersed in the Rumi connection with the Winter Feast and I was off on my own Rumi tangent. At some point it crossed my lips in discussion to mention that the Winter Feast dates were chosen because they came right on the heels of the Holiday Season. We all know it is a time when depression often sets in after a long run of stresses that accompanies the holidays. All those bills come due and there is a feeling of emptiness that creeps in after the last holiday has been celebrated. It often becomes clear that you cannot buy the joy that you had set out to create with those frantic shopping sprees and holiday parties.
In late January, 2008, when the Feast had neared the half way point, I heard a piece on public radio that reminded us that January 29 is the day that marks the highest suicide rate in the country. No surprise there when you put it into the context of post-holiday depression.
As we talked our way through that observation, Barbara reminded me that I just may be missing the boat by not emphasizing the relationship between the Feast, and meditation and prayer as a antidote against the depression and anxiety that come with the holidays and the long nights of winter.
Spiritual teachers around the world call upon us to remember that periods of prolonged silence are prescribed during the winter season. We must follow the rhythm of the earth, going deep when she does. Disappearing like the moon does when the dark days of the New Moon remind us that there is a prescribed cycle for going within.
Yes, the Winter Feast is also an antidote for depression and it is one of the few that will not cost you a dime Whether you choose to sit on a cushion and find your comfort in the silence there, read from your favorite sacred text, or spend 40 minutes in a yoga class or a martial arts session. Our goal is to support you in finding a way to calm and focus your mind.
One last thing about the Winter Feast…It's as much about the post holiday season as it is about the honoring of the Earth, of which we are each and every one of us an integral part. We are, to the Earth, like the skin cells on our own body. When we go to bed at night, they go with us. They don't decide on their own to stay up and dance. Their intelligence is greater than ours in that way.
There are 7,590,000 links on the web if you search for depression and meditation. So, don't let yourself be overwhelmed and caught here. I suggest that you begin now to prepare for winter by training yourself to spend at least 20 minutes in some form of focused quiet…and even better spend 40 minutes there. By the time the Winter Feast comes around you will be a pro and you may have already formed the habit of finding yourself in that silence. And I am willing to believe that you will begin making better choices about how you spend your time and money over the holidays.
Make this winter one of the best ever. Take a look around and notice how Nature is participating in the season and see how you can honor what you find there.
There is a reason why January 29 is known as the darkest of days. But it doesn't have to be dark inside of your soul during this time. You have the power to choose for yourself.
Here is a poem that I wrote last year while on retreat over the Winter Solstice and the Christmas Holiday. 2007 was one of the best Christmas's of my whole life.
Be Suspicious of What You Think You Know
Winter Solstice, 2007
They are not always right,
Those who tell you
This is the darkest night.
Full moon
On white snow
Tells another story.
She gazes back,
Reminding me
This is the brightest night.
All Light - a reflection
Of something brighter.
Long shadows
Slits of darkness.
A landscape alive.
Use your own eyes,
Use your own heart,
To find the Truth.
Growing minds.
Glowing minds
Dive deep
And feel the ripping
Tides of real Love.
The Love that
Cannot be contained
Notice how it
Keeps you alive.
Notice how it
Replenishes your thirst.
No one being
Is prepared to love
You in this way.
Deeply, madly, fully,
With every breath you take.
By One who knows you,
Because this is
The One who loved you into being.
By Valerie Skonie
