12/31/2023: Getaway Day 4 (Wilfredo)
Today is the last day of the year. Our last full day of solitude in our getaway haven. Sometimes I want to freeze time and moments completely, to live in an experience forever.
If there was some sanctuary that I could have all to myself as time hung in limbo and stood still, it would look very much like the place I’m in now. It would be a place lost to human civilization, deep in the peaceful wooded wilderness, where my love and I could live forever in nature, in bliss where we are our best selves.
There are healing words in the stillness here, in the soft breeze that rustles the bare tree branches and whispers through the few remaining leaves above. The sky is a brilliant calming blue, the clouds wispy and white as they pass by at their leisure, in no hurry to meet the demands of a bustling world below.
Even in the season of death, when the world prepares to settle into its winter slumber, it is still oh so beautiful. It is a state of sleep before the world is reborn in a more promising spring. The parallel between the world and my spirit are evident here, as I take a moment to look back on the spring, fall and winter of my life and prepare to awaken in my new spring and make my plans for my next year of seasons, of change and growth, and even death in some ways.
Our biggest adventure is just beginning as we wake from our winter slumbers of the year before. Then spring will come, and we will settle into our new lives with a newfound determination and hope as we learn and grow. We will have fun and fleeting times in the summer and when fall is upon us, we will begin to shed our past mistakes and burdens, letting go of the things that held us back before, and what a beautiful time it will be, a season where we shed our past selves in a swirl of vibrant color, before we inevitably sleep again and awaken renewed and ready to repeat the cycle again as we mourn the death of our old selves and celebrate who we will be when we are once again reborn anew.
There is so much to learn from nature, from the passing seasons. Yes, the seasons may be subjected to their own time constraints, but for some reason when I admire the marvels of nature, somehow this slows down time significantly for my body and soul, and it rejuvenates me when I breathe in the fresh air and bask in the pure beauty all around me. It’s as if Mother Earth is inviting me to sit down and enjoy all that she has to offer. As if she is teaching me how to slow down in the midst of a world that is built on time in such a way that I can cherish the moments while letting them pass as they see fit.