Surrendering to the winter sun?
In nature, abundance always gives way to scarcity and then oscillates back, as humans we try to modify this flow but the further away from the equator you are, the starker the change from one season to another is. Even in the mild lands of England we have to deal with droughts and snow, the sun will vary it's dance across the sky from a bountiful twenty hours at the height of summer to a miserly eight in the dead of winter, and it does not matter how rich, optimistic or in alignment with the manifesting universe you are, the hours of sunlight are fixed. What is in your control, is how you use those hours of sunlight, and how much you surrender to its dance.
There is no point complaining to a higher authority or paying a lawyer to find a breach of contract, the sun is going to shine for exactly as long as it wants and when it wishes to do so. Physicists will point out that it is merely obeying the laws of mathematics on its orbit, but if you wish to mock the fates, do not be surprised if a dark cloud appears above your head, randomness can be vicious with it's occurrence and variance. If you believe it is a entirely random event whether there is bright sunshine when you go for your walk and coffee, then you almost certainly see the results of random dice, if you look the meaning and purpose, it will always emerge, the sun will come out when you are happy and it will rain when you are sad.
There is an alternative, you can just surrender to what the sun gods give you, you can accept the fates, respond with elegance and skilfulness, though of course you should always be ready to take advantage of good luck and probably take an umbrella just in case. You need to have the grace to have put in the hard work and practice for when good luck emerges, like the old surfer waiting for the wave of their lives by riding ten thousand small waves before. There is power in surrender, in finding what you need in any particular situation, what is meant for you and surrendering to its meaning, not universal meaning, just what it illuminates as being meaningful to you. It is sometimes meaningful just to surrender to the joy of our winter sun and soak up some wonderful vitamin D, a process which still amazes me, that we literally eat and absorb the sunlight directly through our skin, that simultaneously makes us healthy and happy.
That is what makes the winter sun so powerful for me, the fact that it is scarce is a gift that makes me appreciate it so much more, that I am compelled to seek it out rather than retreat from it into the shade as I do during Midsummer. Without the winter sun, that period of scarcity and fasting, makes it into a sacred gift from mother nature, she gives us abundance and then makes us appreciate her withdrawal, you can never be missed if you are always there and she gives her blessings generously but not without limit. She gives you freedom during the summer with the warmth of her constant presence, but in winter she demands discipline and your devotion. She require you to seek her out, to dance to her tune and schedule.
To honour the winter sun, you have to abandon your own sense of time, you have to do give up your calendar and diary. You have to surrender to her wishes and the gift of time spent with her, she gives you all the time in the world during the summer, she shines with ever present love, you meditate in the morning glory of her rising or toast her with a glass of wine in the evening, but in the winter she shows her face shyly and with reluctance. You have to choose to make her a priority, you have to surrender to her moods and she invites you out for walk you have to agree immediately or you will lose the opportunity to enjoy her company.
This is not done from a place of punishment rather it is her way of teaching you the lessons of appreciation, of valuing abundance, the simple pleasures of life, it is the act of surrender that is sacred and only made possible by her absence. And surrendering is not a passive choice, it is not giving up, it is not subservience, surrendering is the act of allowing things that are not in our control to be as they are, surrendering is choosing our response to those events and fates. It is choosing to use them as our teachers, to learn every possible lesson from their occurrence, to learn to be dignified in failure, to be humble when we face ill fortune and even more so when we are lucky. We are not indifferent to the outcomes but we do recognise that our control of them are limited.
When the sun shines, learn to be adaptable to the circumstances, to change your plans and your location. When it shines it does not matter if you have to wear several layers of clothing, your face will still appreciate the warmth of the sun, when it blinds you with its low angle smile that you have to squint, love the fact that you have to dress up to sunbathe, that you get to drink extra hot coffee to have a lazy hour in the sun, that you have to wear gloves to read a book, that walking fast does not produce a sweat and that you get to eat an extra portion of cake to give your body the energy to burn warmly, that it automatically adjusts into a new equilibrium with its environment. You get to appreciate that nature is the most powerful influence on your daily experience, despite the attempts by humans to moderate those extremes, even without central heating, cashmere scarves and woollen jumpers, we have to dance to someone else's tune and the sun is the drumbeat that sets the tempo of our day, so surrender to the beat and dance with the winters intimate tango.
