Take Good Care Nature is a generous and patient teacher. Season after season, if we are paying attention, she will show us how she best prepares for the future by following certain rhythms. I recently received a lesson from her that I want to share because I think it is a good reminder. I was in my garden collecting seeds from spent flowers like sage and cosmos and I was forced to slow down to capture each minuscule precious one, sometimes with tweezers! Then the words, “Take good care” came to mind and I knew that each seed, so full of potential, must be handled just right, kept in a dry container in a dark cupboard and left undisturbed until spring, when, if all the circumstances are right, it will grow and produce its own flowers and be available for the pollinators so that everything else can thrive. For us, taking good care can mean that we adopt a similar way of treating ourselves as precious seeds of potential. Instead of the dark cupboard, we are gifted with longer cooler nights when we can allow ourselves to rest without guilt or judgment. During this time of year, we are invited to look inward and reflect on what we need to do or not do, in order to thrive for the coming seasons. It can also mean that we practice letting go of what no longer serves us while making space for what we want to dream into being as we slowly emerge into the light. Biboon, winter, is a time to pause, to listen, meditate, appreciate, and focus on the conclusion of one
cycle before another begins. The Earth teaches us not to do everything all at once or all the time. By
listening to the lessons of the land, we learn limits, order, logic, balance, and reasoning. from Aanii Ezhi-Nisidawendamang Dibaajimowinan Akiing? How Do We Understand the Stories of the Land? By Margaret Noodin
I hope you take good care during this holiday season and winter solstice.