Dreams of bears and owls…

During the winter, here in the Northwoods, the bear slumbers in dens covered with thick snow.  Many other animals hibernate or torpor, lulled into the depths of dreams as the ice forms and thickens on Lake Superior.

Icicles

We can be so busy during the spring and summer and autumn of our lives.  We can run to and fro, caught in cycles of busy-ness.  We so often keep creating, creating, creating our active lives without a complimentary cycle of down-time, rest, incubation.

Three years ago–in January, 2008,–I decided to focus inward.  Besides doing my two part-time jobs, I spent much of the month in meditation, silence, prayer.  The usual days of busy-ness turned into contemplation and deep inner peace.  By the time the bear rolled over in his den (also known as Heikkinpaiva around these parts) I felt renewed and content.  I also felt no need to move outward toward people ever again…fully convinced that my own company was finally enough.

Snow on spruce branch

Of course the Universe always laughs at pronouncements such as these!  Within a month or two after this winter retreat, I discovered Blogging.  All those years of wanting to share my writing with others, of feeling sometimes stifled in our forest-world, of deep-winter restlessness, suddenly found an outlet.

I blogged.  I blogged!  I blogged some more.  For three years you couldn’t shut me up.  Years of pent-up creativity burst through hundreds of inner seams.  Energy flew helter-skelter into the world, delighted to be freed, to be heard.

Last year I wrote 365 posts in an outdoor blog, a year-long commitment to spend time outside.  During two years on Gaia.com, I probably wrote a couple hundred spiritual blogs.  The blog you are reading now is #295 from Lake Superior Spirit.  Add another forty-six blogs on Simply here.  (OK, you could also add twelve more on another now-defunct blog about non-duality…)

If you do the math–that’s about 918 blogs in three years.  That’s a lot of blogging, folks!

Bearyweather of Bear in Mind recently lamented about bloggers who leave the Internet without a formal word of goodbye.  One day they’re chatting away about Snowmen and Santas, and the next day they’re gone, without a word.  It hurts sometimes to feel the empty space where our blogging friends once shared their lives.  He said that the average blogger blogs for two years before ceasing.  If that’s the case…I’m probably overdue for a blogging rest.

My  inner bear (or perhaps my inner owl) has suddenly decided it’s time to hibernate for a while…to turn more steadily inward…to quit focusing outward in huge bursts of creativity as the magic of silence and contemplation works its renewal.

Woodpile

Therefore, I am saying goodbye to blogging and Facebook and other internet pursuits for an extended stretch (except for daily checking of email).  Maybe a few weeks?  Maybe a month?  Maybe longer? 

I want to listen deeper to the Spirit within and determine which direction it wishes to turn as 2011 unfolds.  Does it still want to blog?  Does it want to turn directions in blogging, or stay the same? Does it want to focus more on photography?  Does it want to do something else?

This feels exciting, this turning inward.  If any of you have the time or space or inclination, never hesitate to give yourself days and days of silence and contemplation.  Amazing fruits can be discovered in the dens of our winter muse.

Illumination

Wishing you all the best.  Your reading support has filled me with a deep appreciation and joy.  You will never know how much this has meant!   May 2011 find you closer to your own inner peace, connection and love.  Blessings to all…until we meet again.  Maybe when the bear rolls over in the den?  Or when the owl swoops, silent, through the frozen forest?