Inner Warmth
Like many people, at this point in the year I am longing for some warmth and more sunlight. Certainly, that the days are lengthening is becoming tangible, but there has been a distinct lack of sun where I am in the UK so far this year combined with low temperatures and this past week in particular, the cloud cover has felt heavy. When I glimpsed a few chinks of blue this morning I had a moment of elation, but they soon closed over. At least I was reminded of what lies beyond.
Everything responds to those moments of slightly less cloud, and the garden suddenly filled with birds. Short lived though.
Along with the cloud closing in, there was more silence, no wind, no rain, no busy bird song, almost strange but a good moment to go within and being a Sunday I could indulge a bit. Finding these moments of stillness has become my most important tool for starting a day, not a mediation, just a beingness, purposefully doing nothing. It doesn’t clear the mind chatter necessarily but underneath it calms and strengthens, can bring inspiration or just the ability to meet the day’s demands from the heart with more clarity and more of a sense of self rather than immediately being pulled in all directions.
I find myself wondering what the plants feel at the moment. The rhythm of nature pulsing, the increasing length of day sending messages through the whole underground interconnected network concurrently receiving information from the earth’s magnetic field creating movement in the sap and pushing the bulbs growth upwards to seek what light there is, does this lack of sun cause a whole activity of reorganisation of nutrients from the fungal networks or are they too, depleted at this point from the wet leaching winter, longing for the exchange they receive from photosynthesis once that is underway.
The desire for warmth which I always have has been heightened by a cold house temperature. I have been used to that over the last few years, never had a bedroom with heating and tried to keep costs low but below ten degrees certainly takes a bit more resillience and many more layers of wool, thank goodness for a rayburn now to have a cosy room !
I am heartened to learn that in Japan and Portugal central heating is rare and I know around the world this is usually the case, though they are often blessed with more sunny days to lift the spirits and help drive activity. I am feeble at pushing myself out in miserable weather so I am behind with pruning and garden preparation and in this respect I am grateful that things are moving slowly. This week I am determined to set to and get all that done before I miss the boat.
Although most things are still dormant, I am surprised to have noticed wild garlic coming up already under the fig, which seems incredibly early but nice to have some of that fresh warming flavour to add to soups together with lots of ginger.
This is a new garden to discover.
Not knowing the land has been one of the most unsettling things about moving, but its exciting, wondering what I will be discovering. Getting to know a place is very anchoring and has become really important to me.
In the kitchen I find myself reaching for the sunny herbs for my tisanes to cultivate some inner warmth. Chamomile, soothing, St Johns Wort, uplifting, Elacampane, warming and tonifying and damp removing. I wonder what herbs I will find in this area. The old garden had a range of about 30 over the season of a year, most just gifted over time.
Another way to get some inner fire going is red light. Our mitochondria which drive our cell’s energy production depend on it for top activity and if we don’t get much sunlight its actually one of the main reasons we feel depleted. Another reason why a real fire can feel so nourishing in the winter. Our eyes have the highest concentration of mitochondria and the greatest energy demand of the body so looking into natural red light of the sun or of fire or light bulbs of a frequency between 660nm to 900nm for 10 minutes can really boost eye health and power all the mitochondria in the body so boosting metabolic processes.
As I was going to post this earlier the sun came out ! Wonderful, I wish you all sun shiny blessings of warmth