Regeneration, redux

Practicing the "in breath"


It’s winter again in Wisconsin.

The view from my front door

The view from my front door

As I wrote last year, during a reflection on Rebecca Ryan’s book Regeneration:

For me, winter has long been a season of discontent. I have usually felt restless and frustrated, wishing it were already spring. Rather than accept winter as part of the cycle, I would try and place my energy ahead of where I am, where nature is.
This year, I intend to choose a different approach. This year, I intend to practice treating winter as the “out-breath,” accepting the season, starting where I am, and going where my energy takes me. So that, when spring arrives, I can take the “in-breath.”

Obviously, the spring of 2020 did not allow for an “in-breath.” The world has suffered over the past year, and it is still a dark period, even now.

And yet, the winter of 2021 feels oddly more ripe for the potential of renewal this spring 2021. We are still in the out breath, but it’s hard to remember a time where I feel gratitude for the coming in-breath.