© Tom Gable

      Oh, how each day comes and each day goes! Winter seems like it has been here for some time. I need spring; life that is thriving and bustling. Life that is jubilant. Winter has a place in the seasons of my heart. Winter is a season of quiet and stillness; when snow muffles all sound and life leaving only naked trees and frozen water. My soul needs such times to ponder, reflect and rethink aspects of life that at times go unnoticed in the busier seasons of life. My spirit needs times of stillness and quiet, peace that is seldom found in the ever moving world. Winter is the time to stop, to stand motionless and listen. Listen for the true calls of soul that are so often neglected and suppressed because it has been seen as loss to stop. To stop is weakness in the never ending climb to the top of the mountain – a journey everyone is on. The journey to find success, happiness, contentment. To find these things requires work, time and energy; stopping will take you no farther along the trail. Stopping will not get anyone to the top of the mountain.

     I stop. Everyone needs to stop. Everyone just needs to sit still and be still. No journey is ever successful if time is not set aside for rest, for refreshment. Winter has been this time for me. I just needed to sit still and be still. My soul has rested in this winter season, taken deep breaths of the cold air, allowing it to permeate my body and reignite a spark of life throughout my being. I have found my season for quiet and stillness, a beautiful landscape for contemplation. I have been rejuvenated. Now I await the pouring out of life in spring, the beauty of a promising season.