Tag: Winter

Water, drops, drips, frozen=ICE

icicles
Wellie breaks out his super fantatical Icicle cutters.

ICE – Ice – ice…..no matter how you type it’s still frozen water, slick, cold, and reflective. Clear with a blue tint, blurry at the edges or sharp as a knife.

Ice is such odd contradiction of concepts to me…

  • Beautiful but can be deadly…..
  • Can look soft and yet is incredibly hard.
  • One end of the spectrum is a tiny ice crystal-the other may be a glacier.
  • Water is fluid-Ice is stoic and solid.
  • Ice makes: pellets, hail, dams, snowflakes, crystals, needles, sculptures, ice cubes, a coolant, ice houses/blocks, a famous movie* and musician**-since it can make all those things it ought to be flexible…. and yet it is not.
  • Did you know there is something called Rime ice? Rime ice is a type of ice formed on cold objects when drops of water crystallize on them.
  • Here’s a really odd one! Did you know that according to wikipedia “Ice can be used to start a fire by carving it into a lens which will focus sunlight onto kindling. A fire will eventually start.[38]”  Makes sense but really, I don’t think I would have ever thought of that.

Ice- all part of  Winter Wonders. I am hard pressed to call it a Winter Wonderland at this point. It has created havoc for so many and worn me down. Mother Nature-you win with 100 points…me-I’m down to about five points.

So I am holding out for the hope of spring, warmer days, no more ice and bitting cold temps. A while ago a dear friend shared a poem that I know is near to his heart. I am sharing it with you all now…. On so many levels, it’s so fitting right now.  Here’s to hope for a weather change, a season change, and because hope in life and what the future may present is often the ray of sunshine and warmth we need to hold on to.

It is called
“Hope” is the thing with feathers. By Emily Dickinson.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – 
That perches in the soul – 
And sings the tune without the words – 
And never stops – at all – 

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm – 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

(thanks Gary-a special nod and hug)

* I thinking of the movie Frozen
** Vanilla Ice and his 1990 single “Ice Ice Baby“

Is your Self Mold intact?

Breaking out of the mold
Breaking out of the mold

There are Jello molds, mold spores, molds for objects, and molds for just about everything. This post is about how we have molded, and continue to mold ourselves. The ‘self’ mold has to posses both rigid strength as well as ultimate flexibility and flow. Pretty tough to do at times. I state the obvious-we are entering the winter months. A time we often ‘hunker down’ and take stock of ourselves inside and out. According to Taoism, the winter is the season of the Water Element. (This is why todays illustration of Breaking out of your mold is featuring Moe, Minister of Clean Water.) At first the concept of winter as the water season was puzzling to me, but as I have pondered it for about a year now it is making more sense. The quote below is from The 5 Elements in Taoism. 

” Water is the energy phase associated with winter, when the Yin force is prevalent. The winter is a time of rest and quiet, when energy is saved, gathered, condensed, conserved and stored. Water is a very concentrated element containing great potential, a great power waiting to be liberated. In the human body water is associated with essential fluids like hormones, lymphatic liquids, marrow, enzymes, all with great energetic potential. Its color is black or midnight blue. It is the color that contains all the other colors in concentrated form. In nature, water evaporates under excess heat; in human beings water’s energy disperses because of excess stress and strong emotions. The way to conserve water’s energy is with quiet and rest, by staying “cold”.  http://www.healing-tao.com.br/en/alchemy/elements.htm

 

As we approach the winter, the cold, the still, the frozen water, our personal work should be well in progress. Our personal mold may indeed need some shaping, that’s where the flexibility and flow comes in. We may need to change a piece of the mold, we may need to remix and/or reshape a chunk of the mold, or maybe the mold is broken and needs some repair. Only you know. It’s all ok, it’s all part of our every changing lives, your story.  One of the great things I learned in yoga this week, where this mold idea was planted for me, is that no matter what has chipped, eroded or weakened in/on your personal mold, at the core of your mold is your spirit and no one can hopefully ever take that away. So get out those chisels, those picks and reshapers and have a go at it! Nothing is static and really, neither are you.

In Chinese philosophy (Taoism, Daoism)  “Nothing in the Universe is fixed, static or non moving; per se everything is transforming all the time…” http://www.nationsonline.org

 

PS: Remember, the next season is Spring- it is explosive with energy and potential! Enjoy the rest of winter, you are realize you are just getting ready for the Spring! It is called The Wood phase and is all about expansion, happiness and is explosive!