They say that we plan and the Divine laughs. I was so excited for this year. I had a self-love speaking tour lined up and a new empowerment program for my "spiritpreneurs" ready to launch. These new offerings were practically all I could think about.
Then my dad got sick.
I was terrified and anxious. I couldn't concentrate. Frankly, it was hard for me to focus on anything except my family. Luckily my dad is on the mend now, after a second stint in the hospital, but my meticulously planned scheduling was thrown way off base.
We plan and the Divine laughs. And then there are seasons.
My grandfathers on both sides were farmers. No one understands the power of seasons more than a farmer. Even in a South American country like Guyana where it looks like there are no seasons, there is a rainy season, a windy season, a hotter season.
Our lives have seasons too. Last year, I heard a very clear voice one morning say, "get up, it's reaping season." Now I may be the granddaughter of Guyanese farmers, but I am a New Yawker. I had to google to make sure I was clear about the difference between reaping and sowing. That's how I know it wasn't my voice.
Many of you have been feeling like you're stuck in the Winter of your life. Your leads, plans and ideas are running cold. There seems to be a lack of fertile ground for miles. A beautiful woman told me the other day that she felt like if it wasn't for bad luck, she would have none. In "The Sacred Bombshell Handbook of Self-Love" I call this having a "Dry Life Crisis."
When you are having a personal winter season, you feel like life is cold and dry. For example, if you had any spring plans for last Friday on the East Coast, your plans were upset by Winter's snowy refusal to let up. We plan and the Divine laughs. Part of life is learning to laugh along, but what happens when we can't? What happens when you feel stuck in a mental, spiritual, physical, or emotional personal winter?
Here's what I recently learned and feel called to share with you today:
We feel stuck in winter because we get it twisted. We think that we are the flowers.
Flowers are gorgeous. I grew up in a home with flower and vegetable gardens. You give the flowers water and Sun (yes, capital S) and love and they thrive. Some of us (like my Mom) have a green thumb and some (like Me) don't. Some flowers get praised as roses and others get cursed as weeds, but they are all beautiful.
You see yourself as a flower, and that's where you got it twisted, as we say in NYC. The flower is subject to the whims of the sun, the rain, the weather, and green thumbs. Flowers are delicate and fragile.
You are NOT the flower, my darling. You are THE SUN.
The Sun is not subject to the whims of any other weather or force. The Sun is lit from within, a ball of Divine fire power.
The Sun doesn't rise or set. The Sun stands her ground. We rotate around the sun, making a complete turn every 24 hours. The Sun stands her ground. When it is cloudy, the Sun is still there. When it is rainy, the Sun is there. Winter? Spring? Summer? Autumn? The Sun stands her ground.
The Sun doesn't really rise and shine. The Sun IS shine. And so are you. It is OK to release the fear that you are stuck in an abominable Winter season. You just had it twisted. That's all. You are not the flowers under the snow. You are the Sun.
And even given that, there are colder and warmer seasons in your life. That is NOT in your head. Stand. There are times that are more and less fertile for you. Stand. There are times of pain, grief, and struggle.
Embrace your Winter. Treat it as a time of surrender and release. Cave up and get to know yourself again. Ask for whatever kind of help you need. Pour love into you and into life. Allow yourself to be reset. Plant your next harvest. My Granddads knew that they couldn't reap a harvest that they didn't plant. There are times for planting and times for hibernation. There are also times for reaping.
Happy Spring, gorgeous one! Whatever season you are in within your life, embrace it. Go deeper and learn what your Winter has to teach you. If my programs would have launched in January, rather than April, then I wouldn't have had the amazing guest teachers lined up that I have. This became a gift in strange wrapping paper. Such is life.
Let's learn how to trust the seasons together. Maybe it will be made slightly easier if you remember that you are the Sun.