The Golden Time by Stephanie Kaza
“Now the days are growing shorter and the sky is speaking of winter. Change hangs in the air with a question mark. The harvest is in, and the season of waiting begins. This is the tender tie of year, when everything drops away. The trees are left bare and empty, only skeletons of continuity remain. It is the tender time because the impermanence of things is so visible, so unavoidable. The winter heart feels the lengthening darkness and the turning of the sun…
…I can feel the season of stripping away coming on; I need to prepare for the dark heart of winter…I would like to know how to do this-how to gracefully lose everything on the surface and yet retain a core of life and vitality on the inside…
…I need a slow time for a proper frame of reference on the year’s activities. It is a help in settling down for the winter, for the deep time. This is the time of cultivating patience, of nourishing the soul, of soaking the ground thoroughly in preparation for the spring. I don’t know which seeds beneath the surface will germinate. I can only take care of the ground of darkness and sit still without waiting. The deeper the stillness, the great the capacity to respond to change when it comes. I do into the darkness with nothing tangible to guide me. I have only my willingness to be here through the deepening…
…When the light decreases, the spiral turns inward. Then it is the inner light that keeps burning, that serves to guide in the darkness. The darkness of the year is irrefutable. It can be obliterated by electricity, but still it comes…”
