Stay and Be Still
/“Do not be surprised that the return of the light lifts your spirits. Do not be surpsised that warmth on your back calms you and makes you glad. Feel your spirits lift as the sun rises higher in the sky: this is part of you, this snaky goodness, part of who you have been for millions of years. Find the warm places; do not expect them to come to you. When you find them, stay there and be still. Be still and watchful. In this quiet, taste the air. Lick up the taste of it. Listen. Listen with the full length of your body against the ground. ”
This excerpt is from a lovely and somehow familiar book that I've been soaking up during the past several days, while tasting the simultaneously smoky and marine air of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Moore writes in her opening chapter of snakes, and what we can learn from their draw towards warmth. A few days before reading this I attended a yoga class at 3 Oms Yoga in Bellingham; the teacher spoke of Persephone and how she lingered in the late summer, soaking up the sweetness of this rich time with her mother, before heading to the underworld for her annual six months as the Queen alongside her husband Hades.
It is a time of year to linger, to immerse ourselves in our senses. To connect with the great mother. The fruit is ripe, the hard work of the early growing season has slowed, and we are starting to have the ever so slightest break in the heat for moments of the day.... reminding us that the dark is coming. And while I do relish the opportunity to move into the slower months and all that they bring, it's not time to leave quite yet. But can it be time to feel the warmth on our backs? To receive this delicious time of ease?
For many it is a time to prepare for returning to school, to jump right back into the post-summer work schedule... but the days are still long. There is still sunlight after hours.
If you were a snake, where it is that your body would want to pause, to be still?
I personally have been moving for many weeks now, or months even, and have found myself returning to a place that I passed through earlier in my trip that felt like warm sunshine on my back... I have returned. And for at least a few days, I will stay.