Winter seasons bring us gifts of silent beauty: falling snow, cups of hot coffee and milky tea, red cardinals flying from branch to branch, and if we are lucky, quiet conversations with others we care about.

The Winter of our life brings us gifts, too. I take the approach that life over 60 resembles a season of Winter! I find a deepening conscious awareness of quiet beauty, holidays, sharing times, snapshots of nature on my walks with crisp sunny days and inky starry nights. The Winter of our life brings us a Season of Reflection, filled with the warmth of deep gratitude.

Now is the time to practice meditating or quieting ourselves. Though we may have health concerns, grief, loss, fears, and worries, we also have wisdom, endurance, hope, love, and an openness that we may not have had earlier in our busy lives. Practicing stillness, using our our heart to see, life becomes more open to gratitude for everything. We can embrace even the most horrible thoughts, knowing that our surrender to suffering is simply a fact of life. Our task is to live in harmony and healing, engaged with suffering, but not consumed by it. Our heart focused attention will help heal our lives. We can embrace the Other.

Through my training with Roshi Joan Halifax and her Being with Dying program at Upaya Zen Center and Compassionate Mindfulness training with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, my practice has become much more engaged. Believe me life is not perfect or easy, but I have more energy available to visit my 85 year old mother, hang with my 34 year old daughter and extended family, and spend enjoyable time with my partner of 30 years. I have energy for my psychotherapy patients, my neighbors, and friends. But it is a different energy and I need more quiet, just as the Winter sleeps, I like naps and less busyness. I don’t want to miss out on growing old. I want to show up and be there with my aging.

So today, please find a place to sit still, light a candle, unplug, breathe in calm and exhale stress, coming home to Winter’s stillness. Take care!

My psychotherapy practice is here to help you enter the Winter of your life, filling it with hope and gratitude. New group: begins February 3, 3:15-4:45. Learn to sit quietly, share insights, and try on coping skills to lessen your fears.