Incubation

Winter is a period of incubation. Creatures lower their body temperature, snuggle into their dens. For months, they let everything rest while they rest. Trees stop producing leaves, plants go dormant, the natural world retreats.

I am under the blanket too. Retreating to this room, my studio, I incubate my art, myself, my life. During this largely solitary time, I am looking at everything through fresh eyes. Away from the many ways in which I usually distract myself, I am lifting the veil of judgement, woven mostly in a fabric made by others. Alone with myself, I can just be in the space and time I occupy. I can be and allow what emerges, my work in its varied forms.

Maybe by spending so much time in the woods, I am connecting to the energy of seasons and cycles. At a time when everything around me is under a blanket of snow, there is still the energy of possibility radiating from every element. Curled up under the covers, everything is quietly growing.