Greetings, my Dear Family and Friends,
There is lots of snow around as if to remind us that Winter has not left just yet. And at the same time, there is awakening within the crisp cold sunshine each day that lets us know Spring is beckoning. I so love this time of year. The transition is coming but not quite yet. So it feels timely to remain settled with the energy of Wintertime and not move too fast into what is coming.
As always, knowing that you are out there and we are sharing the time of seasonal dreaming fills me with so much joy. We are not alone. The power of the natural world surrounds us and is there to nurture us. We only need to stop for a moment and listen. Mmmmmm.
Below is a recording of the poem by David Whyte called The Winter of Listening. My dear voice and writing coach Tim Uffindell has kindly added a beautiful meditative accompaniment for your delight. Click here to listen
I invite you to find a comfortable position and relax into a quiet inner space. Let the words flow over you, and then be with the music as you contemplate your life. Listen for the guidance that comes from beyond the ordinary. It is your soul whispering to you.
One of the lines in the poem is:
‘Inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born’
I wonder what ‘great shout of joy’ is in your heart today. How does this awaken you to the full potential of your life?
As always, I would love to hear from you.
Ann
The Winter of Listening
No one but me by the fire,
my hands burning red in the palms while
the night wind carries everything away outside.
All this petty worry while the great cloak
of the sky grows dark and intense
round every living thing.
****
What is precious inside us does not
care to be known by the mind
in ways that diminish its presence.
What we strive for in perfection
is not what turns us into the lit angel we desire,
what disturbs and then nourishes
has everything we need.
***
What we hate in ourselves
is what we cannot know in ourselves but
what is true to the pattern does not need
to be explained.
Inside everyone is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.
Even with the summer so far off
I feel it grown in me now and ready
to arrive in the world.
***
All those years listening to those
who had nothing to say.
All those years forgetting how everything
has its own voice to make itself heard.
All those years forgetting how easily
you can belong to everything
simply by listening.
***
And the slow difficulty
of remembering how everything
is born from an opposite
and miraculous otherness.
Silence and winter
has led me to that otherness.
So let this winter of listening
be enough for the new life
I must call my own.
***
- David Whyte, from The House of Belonging.
Thank you Ann and Tim
The line -
"Every sound has a home from which it comes to us and a door through which it is going again to make another home."
- resonated with me.
I think my soul is a sound...
Beautiful meditation! David Whyte poem beautiful and perfectly read by you with the what sounded like channeled piano composition. We are having a winter listening inside day with very cold temperature outside. Very much appreciating your message and meditation. Thank you, dear heart!!