The Eloquence of Living in the Season

Early morning in Makuyu

It is always a honour to stumble upon precious lessons as we experience life. One such lesson that stood out for me is in recognising and honouring the cyclical nature of life. 

That there are times of illumination and times of darkness. The rise and the fall, the high and the low, the passive and the active, the receptive and the giving….all these shifts offer spaciousness for expending and when it is time, resting, restoring and regenerating.  

I appreciate now more than ever the times of retreat, when we go dark in order to make room and prepare for the new things ahead.

Much like the rise of dawn, darkness must preface the light for us to witness the magic that sunrise brings.

Perhaps this explains why I am drawn to witnessing the miracle of sunrise… Gazing at the same mundane spots at home that come to light each day; familiar yet different each time.

It is unfortunate that somewhere along the way, many of us have lost the art of living in the season.

Society today frowns upon us when we turn inward. Going dark is confused for being unproductive and that in this phase ‘nothing is happening.’

We took a detour into this profit-before-people world, to perceive life as linear. The tunnel vision line of thought has fanned our anxieties so much that we are preoccupied with notions of absolute finality with no recourse.

It eats away at our sense of spontaneity and living in the present. In its place we fill our time with grand notions of being ahead in the rat race, promoting busyness never mind at what personal cost and peddling the falsehood of FOMO.

We have been taught to dread the phase of darkness and its hidden mysteries as all things terrifying. 

We have been conditioned to associate darkness with evil and manifest it as our worst fears of loss, isolation, unraveling, bad fortune, rejection and so on.

But do realise that nothing could be further from the truth.

The season of darkness is much like going fallow. It is an essential phase to ready and fertile our minds and bodies for a prolific season of growth and creativity.

Go dark. 

It gives room for retreat allowing for healing and restoration to take place. 

We cannot be always on. 

We need time to rest from pursuits and demands that occupy our waking lives. We need to recoup and sustain the vital energy that fuels us.

The dark phase help us yield and surrender into the realms of our interiority…where we sit, wait, hold and take refuge to quiet the inner and outer noise. It is where and when we are ready to weave our dreams.

It is only under the cover of darkness that we gain wisdom of knowing not be ready before it is time.