This can be found in its original form on Sanandi.com

Written in Collaboration with Dr. Dieter le Noir

The Winter season is the time of darkness—with its long nights and short days.

Although the surface has most convinced of a season of desolation, it is specifically in winter, in the dark night of the soil, when the earth is most alive. Interstellar force comes together, powerful and effective, and can be seen reflected in the dawn patterns of crystallized ice on our windows and in the foliage.

In Valle la Paz, we take advantage of the season to harvest the roots of medicinal plants that have the highest concentration of active principles. As we dig, we look above to the oyamel pines. The magnificent monarch butterfly as they return from the north, to the very same trees where their ancestors began their rhythmic reproductive cycles seven generations before.

Winter is a time of great inspiration for the Earth—a time for regeneration and looking inwards. With the planet as our guide, we find ourselves steeped in the depths of our own selves. Focusing quietly on what we can align before the wild of spring casts us into growth.

Silence is winter’s hallmark. With the first frost, crickets stop their nightly noises to burrow underground, finding warmth in their seasonal hibernation. The only sound in our ears, aside from the crunching frost beneath our booted feet on a morning walk, is the sparse call of a bird that chooses to stay through the cold.

The owl’s occasional hoot or a goldfinch’s morning song—seemingly intoning an entire octave—can be heard in the deep still, reminding us of lively, brighter days ahead.

Amid intense cold, nature endows us with the fruit of the hawthorn tree, and flowers from gordolobo and elder trees, for our winter colds. Nature always offers us remedies from its repertoire—just the ones the body needs, every season.

A sense of peace permeates everything. The winter solstice arrives and creates the perfect moment for introspective silence, just the right moment for regeneration, birth from darkness—a celebration of the light days coming forward, sharing warmth with loved ones, and ringing in the new cycle with our dear Mother Earth.

Photo by David Dibert on Unsplash