Just a Few Degrees

Just a few degrees: 

just a few degrees of warmth, barely significant by the measure of a season - and yet my skin delights in the touch of sunlight offered now, my spirit so much lighter through this subtle reach of spring. I am ready for these longer days, growing warmer, and my favorite approach of a deepening green to trees, colors splashed in frequent sight with the blooming of flowers, and the world feeling so much more alive. Spring is more than a season of shifting weather, it's the literal rebirth of the soul, collectively, life is waking to its own aliveness, sunlight stretching to a fuller length...

one soul, basking in just few degrees of warmth. 

lately, these past few years, I've found some peace through winter, it will be never a favorite season, but my mood seems a bit less lighter through the colder days. I'm not sure exactly why this is so, that after years of deep seasonal depression, my suffering has lessened somewhat, or at least the days slip by a little easier now. This is no small thing for me, or for anyone who goes through the emotional darkness of winter's grip, experiencing a bleak interior landscape that matches the season's outer hold. It's still not an easy season for me, but there's been a shift, somehow and in some lighter way, an ease through the most intense days of suffering. 

and I'm grateful...for whatever reason this has occurred.

mostly, I think it's in terms of my own aging, being at peace with the grace of every season, knowing that as they pass my own days will be fewer now, and that every experience should be cherished in a certain way. This might sound bittersweet, or perhaps a little premature, as I'm in good health, strong and fit, and surely have decades still ahead. But the past few years have offered seasons of loss, some deep and lasting sorrow, and I've come through with an appreciation for both loss and renewal, winters of bleak surrender as well as my delight in spring. I've come to see that everything belongs...and this includes my own eventual surrender. There's a growing sense of peace through whatever occurs, how life and seasons unfold - and I cherish and celebrate the small things that make my spirit soar. 

even just a few degrees of warmth, and sunlight's touch against my skin.

I'm grateful for it all. 

~

Peace, Eric