Find a quiet, comfortable place where you will not be disturbed

Sit, relaxed, with your spine straight

Take your awareness to your breathing as you have done before

The tidal in and out of your breath

Aligning with all the cycles

Patterns and symmetry of the Natural World

You are of the Earth rather than upon it

Feel the connection


Find yourself in the midst of winter

Walking in ancient woodland

Where ghostly skeletal trees

Reach their spidery limbs and fingers

Upwards into a vast, winter sky

Cloaked in endless white mist

Made of intricate ice crystals

Unique and perfectly formed

Suspended in the frozen woodland

Completely still

Everything that lives here sleeps

In frozen slumber

Drawn completely inwards

Retreating from the outside world


Sharp, angular icicles hang

From dormant branches

Motionless

The silence of these woods

Presses in on the ears

And almost makes a sound of its own

Like one pure note of music

The sound that can only be heard

When everything is in standstill

And perfect balance

A place of non-action

Regeneration


The stillness of midwinter

The space between

Reflection of what has been

And anticipation of what is to come

Nowhere in the Universe

Does there seem to be a

Present moment

Quite like this one


As you stand completely still

You feel your senses begin to sharpen

You become aware of the extreme clarity of vision

The acuteness of your hearing

The hairs on your arms and neck

Picking up the tiniest of changes

Both within and without

And you move effortlessly away from

Thinking

Planning

And doing

And into


Being


Nothing else is required of you here

In the Frozen stillness

Of the woods

In midwinter


Gently bring yourself back to full awareness and consider carefully which aspects of ‘Ringing in the New Year’ are likely nourish you, and which may pose a risk to your peace.

After the thaw, and when it is time to take action again, you can then do so with conscious attention to your own wellbeing and that of those around you.