Contemplating Winter

[TygerTyger]

Autumn’s coming to an end and you can feel Winter in the air; definitely colder. The sky is that monotonous grey that seems to stretch from horizon to horizon with no variation. All the birds seem to have disappeared, no wagtails, sparrows or magpies; although I did see a Kestrel on the way into work this morning.

I think that in the past I would have considered this as the time of the year when the natural world seems to die, not literally, it just seems to withdraw from everyday contact; but not this year.

I don’t know why but I feel life all around me just as strongly as any of the warmer seasons. It does not feel that life is withdrawing to warmer climes so much as coiling up like a spring, full of energy and vitality, waiting to burst forth again.

The landscape is not dying, it’s changing. Animals and plants have either moved on or adapted to meet the coming cold spell, but they have not deserted these northern climes. It might not be so easy to see them anymore, except the v-formation of geese heading south the skies seem bare, but life is still very much there. In fact it feels even stronger. Perhaps that is because it has to be strong to survive the winter?

I find it reassuring to feel this and wish my wife could sense it too because she gets SAD at this time of the year, but I never do.

[Artiste-LiLi]

Dsoe your wife*have* SAD (seasonal affect disorder) or does she just *feel* sad? And if she just feels sad, she might want to be checked for SAD.

I have SAD...and I can sense what you speak of...it feels a bit different to me, but I understand what you are saying. Even though I can feel that of which you speak; it does not help my SAD. SAD is directly related to the amount of sunlight one gets during the winter months and the only thing I know that can really help severe cases of it are full spectrum daylight balanced light therapy.

Maybe you could try an experiment....replace several bulbs in your home with full spectrum daylight balanced bulbs and see if it helps her sadness...if it doe help to lighten her mood a bit..she may have S.A.D.

[TygerTyger]

Unfortunately she does have Seasonal Affected Disorder, but I will try and find some of those lightbulbs for her.

Although I have many reasons to dislike Winter, broken bones that feel the cold, etc., I've never felt 'down' because of it. People talk about it being a 'miserable day' but I just don't get it, it's just another day of life for me.

I do think that my Pantheism helps because my whole approach to changes in the seasons has changed and my outlook with it.

Thanks for you reply by the way!

:thumbsup:

[LostSheep]

I think winter is perhaps my favourite time of year, but yes, i know I am odd. I was just out this morning going for a tramp in the woods (he got away); I like the smell of the damp earth, the damp leaves, the, um, the cows; how you can see the shapes of the trees and the landscape. There are loads of birds around our way; rooks nesting in the trees, and others pecking about in the fields for food. And there were a couple of magpies investigating something on the lawn this morning. So yes, I like this time of year; i even like the cold when there's not too much wind. It's kind of invigorating.

[Iris]

I was just out this morning going for a tramp in the woods (he got away)

:lol:

This may not be from an especially pantheistic point of view, but I love all the seasons in their own way. I would hate to live somewhere where they don't have such clearly defined seasons. In the spring, I love the daffodils that come up all around the city and the birds and rabbits breeding on the University campus. In the summer there's nothing better than a big bowl of strawberries on a hot day, and there are the lighter nights. In Autumn I love to watch the leaves fall, to prepare for Hallowe'en and Bonfire night, to start making heavy, British comfort foods instead of finicky salads. And in Winter there is always mince pies, mulled wine, the sharp tang of frost in the air and the chance to go skating on the city's ice rink, which is only set up temporarily each year.

[TygerTyger]

:lol:

This may not be from an especially pantheistic point of view,

I would disagree, if it is about life then it is very pantheistic!

Well, except maybe chasing tramps through woods!

Thanks for your comments. :thumbsup:

[Windsmith]

Winter is a difficult time. My wife has SAD, also; she does much better now that she does light therapy every day, but it's a struggle for her to find much purpose, much reason to get out of bed every day, and knowing I can do nothing to help her is a struggle for me.

I grew up with a mother who loathed and feared Winter more than anything. I absorbed that attitude. Winter was a time of disappointment and broken promises; if so much as a flake of snow touched the ground, Mom canceled any plans we had, no matter how long we'd had them or how much we were looking forward to them.

In college, I caught a glimmer of a different way to approach Winter. Winters here are so long that people keep on doing whatever they do - plus all sorts of other interesting things: ice skating, snow mazes, Winter Carnivals. It was magical! Around here, if you hide through the Winter, you miss a lot - of activity and precious minutes.

Since becoming Pagan, I've progressed in my outlook toward Winter. I no longer see it as an enemy to be survived; I see it as a season as valid as the others, with its own possiblities and challenges, like the others. For me, it is the time when many things die, and many others withdraw and conserve energy. It's an introspective time for me, a time for spending less time in community and more time on my own projects and thoughts.

I understand where you're coming from, TygerTyger, looking at Winter as energy waiting for Spring, but that's not for me. I spent the first 18 years of my life viewing Winter as nothing more than waiting for Spring; now I want to view Winter as Winter, death and all, and I want to savor every freezing cold minute of it!

[tooltb120]

Winter for me,is my favorite season.I love the cold and snow and like Tyger said ,the energy is still there,its just different, stronger in some sense.

I like going outside late at night or early in the morning when it's really cold out,and the snow is crunchy under your feet.I can hear,smell and feel for what seems like miles and miles,everything is so still and calm.There's nothing else like it.I'll sit and watch the steam from my breath and meditate for a long time.It's great.

I heard a quote once,but can't remember where,I think it's from the native Americans.Something like this"When a storm comes,don't run or hide from it,but rather go out and embrace it,put your face into it and become part of it,let it change you."

I try to live by that.:thumbsup:

[RavenStars]

My experience of winter and Yule is so different then the stereotypic ones. It was 80 degrees today, and very dry. We've had two really good rains but not enough. We don't have snow and those mind boggling below zero temperatures. But it will get cold (for here anyway) and it will rain. They had fire storms in the south just recently, wild fires that burn so hot that huge houses burn to the ground in minutes. So there are very real reasons I look for rain everyday. So for me it's not winter yet. When the hills turn green and the goldfinches mob my feeder and the clouds open up after a good few days of rain, then it'll be winter.

S.A.D. Wow. I have problems with depression (among other things) I know the grinding, pulverizing, subatomic level blackness where nothing lives, let alone me. There are some great treatments for this now. I know that light therapy works for some. I know some people must do everything, and anything to keep moving, because exercise chases the lead weight shadows away for a little while. I bet there's a ton on SAD out there now. I haven't looked in years.

But I do know that getting outside does a lot of things for me. Being inside is like being in a shell. Turning on the lights doesn't light me up spiritually. When I venture outside I have these times when I feel myself open up, such that even though I know intellectually that nothing has changed, that I actually feel lighter. The grey numbness may still be there but feeling even a little bit more open, a little bit more alive, helps me hang-on sometimes.

I was reading today and putting things together to begin to reframe my understanding of the seasons, especially winter. I was a book taught Wiccan and the solar holidays were said to be about the season but the empasis always seemed to be on the mythology. I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with this! Just for me there was a disconnect which is part of the reason I ended up here. I love symbols, myths and rituals. I'm going to take some time soon and finish my autumn work (including a visual journal). Then I get to turn my attention to figuring out what winter is also all about beside the rain.

[Artiste-LiLi]

Oh I love winter! I think it is a beautiful season...being an artist...I love the stark imagery of late fall through early spring....the trees with their branches so black through the bright colored leaves, the brightly colored pathways with black bare branches arching over them, the lead grey sky that means the chance of snow (I miss snow...we don't get it much any more, though we got lots in my childhood), the "quiet stillness of waiting" that can be felt "just beneath the surface" of everything, snuggling in on a cold grey day with a big bowl of hot homemade soup/stew....I could go on and on......BUT.....

All that beauty does not change the feelings of saddness and depression that the shortening of the daylight hours brings. SAD is absolutely chemically induced and not just a "state of mind"...and that chemical induced saddness is the direct result of less sunlight and the chemical state sunlight produces within one's body.

Light therapy is good for many, though not all. Some do well with some of the new SSNRI anti-depressants on the market, some do well with meditation/visualisation and others do well with exercise alone. I find that most "SAD people" I speak with have to use a combination approach. I use light and exercise with journaling/writing (I've published a couple of small articles on SAD and some on Fibromyalgia) and that helps me alot. My exercise has to be outdoors though during daylight hours..or it doesn't help.........that's why I bundle up and walk and I try to walk facing the sun whenever I can so that the skin on my face gets the light.

Having a good support system in your life is very helpful as well. My husband is wonderful for this.....even though he does not understand SAD or Fibromyalgia; he does his best to help and support.

[TygerTyger]

Wow!

I'm amazed at all the different responses! Each valid to each individual but I identify with comments that embrace winter myself. This is a bit strange really as the cold does me know favours, my muscles respond better in warmer temperatures and because of my disability walking on ice is seriously dangerous,a s a few bad falls I've had would testify!

I don't fear winter though. I don't like all of it, especially when it is just cold and wet, but I do love those days when the cold is dry and invigorating, the snow has newly laid, the sky is blue and starlings singing.

Yeah, there's much to admire about the coldest month.

[Eleisawolf]

I'm sad... I did a post here, and it disappeared. Hm.

Anyway, I'm also SAD. Just recently went and picked up the herbal tincture, tea, and etcetera that help me deal with it. But that's what I do in winter. I deal with it.

I love every season for what it is. Winter for me is the waiting... the potential. As is often mentioned in Advent celebrations, it is the hole within that we nurture in order to be ready for the possibilities that come to us only when we are open to them in that way.

Without the blanket of snow insulating and irrigating them, many plants wouldn't sprout again in spring. The crisp air is mind clearing, and the starkness is beauty to me. And being near mountains in winter is certainly a reminder that life goes on... it's just often sleeping. But it's everywhere.

My husband is winter to me, too. He loves winter, and he reminds me of its introspection, inspiration, revelry.

But I do have to deal with SAD, which can turn me into a weeping mess one day, a raving lunatic the next. I take my tincture and tea, and I work with the feelings instead of against them. When I feel sad, I let myself experience that sad (as long as it's not so intense that it begins to drown me), and work through to the other side.

Winter is much about withdrawal within, hibernation, introspection, and the recoiling of the inner energy in preparation to "spring" forth. Heh.

And I love that.

Peace

[triplemoonmother]

i fear winter and all she brings.

i also have SAD and a few other problems that make it very had for me to handle winter. i have lost family and friends during this time of year. the cold makes it hard for me to walk. and the pure fear of going out in snow and ice is enough to keep me in. i have had 2 near fatel car accidents in the winter on icy roads and have broken my leg 7 times falling on snow and ice. and when the depression hits with the fear ~forget it~ my big behind is at home hiding!

the only thing i like about winter is the joy it brings my son.

[Lilith Morgaine]

i fear winter and all she brings.

i also have SAD and a few other problems that make it very had for me to handle winter. i have lost family and friends during this time of year. the cold makes it hard for me to walk. and the pure fear of going out in snow and ice is enough to keep me in. i have had 2 near fatel car accidents in the winter on icy roads and have broken my leg 7 times falling on snow and ice. and when the depression hits with the fear ~forget it~ my big behind is at home hiding!

the only thing i like about winter is the joy it brings my son.

I can't let you hide this winter.... sorry luv

[triplemoonmother]

I can't let you hide this winter.... sorry luv


yes you can.....

[Rowan Darkmoon]

I love the fall and winter, they are my favorite time of year as everything seems to me to be getting ready to sleep and renew, however, I do get sad this type of year; the actual emotion and not the disorder.

I always do, but it seems a bittersweet sadness verses a real depression. I think about those that have passed this time of year, and I miss them.

[Eleisawolf]

i fear winter and all she brings.

i also have SAD and a few other problems that make it very had for me to handle winter. i have lost family and friends during this time of year. the cold makes it hard for me to walk. and the pure fear of going out in snow and ice is enough to keep me in. i have had 2 near fatel car accidents in the winter on icy roads and have broken my leg 7 times falling on snow and ice. and when the depression hits with the fear ~forget it~ my big behind is at home hiding!

the only thing i like about winter is the joy it brings my son.

I'm so sorry. Loss is hard to bear, and if the loss all comes at the same time of year... I lost my beloved cat last Winter Solstice, and I'm not ready for the coming holiday partly for that reason. It IS hard, and with the other events contributing, I can understand your fear.

I hope that somehow, some day you will be able to defeat the fear and see winter as just another time of year, no more sinister than any other, that simply asks for vigilance. But I understand fear. I wish you a safe, peaceful, comfortable season.

Peace

[Earthwalker]

It's strange this year. I haven't felt this before, but as the days keep getting shorter it's bothered me for some reason. It's as if I'm feeling something of what our ancestors must have - a fear that the sunlight will continue to decrease and the light will then never come again. And as much as I love darkness, I'm also aware that human life at least is not possible without sunlight. Our ancestors had no guarantee hat Sun would return. Neither do we, really. We assume the days will lengthen based on past observations, but anecdotal and scientific. But we don't *really* know for sure that they will until it happens, do we?

It's been bitterly cold the past few days here in the midwest. It's miserable, but only because it needs to snow. Cold without snow just feels like such a waste, because snow is so beautiful!

[*oonagh*]

i love autumn and winter but hate the short days. for some reason, summer depresses me. since i moved from new york to virginia i find that the sun doesn't set until around 5 pm. in new york it would get dark by 4:30 pm. i cherish that extra half hour.

[RavenStars]

We still have autumn leaves on the trees!! But the rain is back, the hills are green, and it's chilly at night. Ahhh, winter in northern California.

[Lilith Morgaine]

Can it be over? PLEASE?

[Shanti]

Can it be over? PLEASE?
I second that but I know we still have at least 1 1/2 months left here. :(