Feeding the Fire in December

Reader Contribution by Aiyanna Sezak-Blatt
Published on December 6, 2016

As the daylight wanes and the nights grow longer, colder and darker, we draw our energy in. Instead of the labor of summer, we begin to curl inward, focusing on our internal landscape, on reading, writing, journaling, on feeding the fire, stacking and chopping wood, while cultivating our vision for the seasons to come.

December is a time to slow down, to gather with family and friends, to reflect and nurture the body and soul with warmth from the fire, with simmered stews, hot herbal teas and early nights. 

“Winter brings introspection and observation,” says Natalie Bogwalker, the founder of Wild Abundance, a primitive skills and permaculture school in Barnardsville, North Carolina. “It’s a time of receptivity, a time for planning the year to come, for walking the land an envisioning.”

On the medicine wheel, the seasons each have their own direction, describes Frank Salzano, a partner at Wild Abundance. Winter is the North, representing the evening and our elderhood, a time for deep reflection and hibernation. “It’s a time for deep psychic recharge and peace,” says Salzano, “when we’re reworking everything so our vision for spring is more honed. It forces us to slow down, and there is a mystical space that happens when you enter into that darkness.”

In the winter, and in the north on the seasonal wheel, there is less work to do on the homestead, and the quiet time of rest should be welcomed, for the work of the summer is not possible without this season of introspection. 

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