A TIME FOR REST AND RESTORATION
This past year, we at Colibri have seen our partners stretch themselves into the unknown and oftentimes the uncomfortable to move closer to justice and liberation. We have learned alongside you.
Now we are nearing the end of 2021, a unique period in time for most of us. Those of us who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color have experienced the shortcomings of our societal structures more deeply. Given all that we have been through, we are writing to encourage you to heed the messages the natural world is sending us. The shorter, colder days are a signal to return home, rest, and hibernate. It is a reminder of the beauty and joy of rest and darkness.
The Work of Re-Membering
The work of walking the path of liberation and justice is to remember what we have forgotten. Some of what we have forgotten we have chosen to forget, and, although it may be painful to remember, can be recalled. This is the work of looking at our histories and the trauma and harm that they have caused and acknowledging how they still live in us. It is also about remembering and being reminded that we deserve agency and dignity in shaping our future, even if the world tells us otherwise. In the re-membering of these things, we can create authentic relations with ourselves, others, the world around us, and feel our power to change.
It is also a time of remembering that which we did not know we had forgotten, the flow of the moon in our spirit, the cycles of the sun in our bodies. This is the remembering that may be the hardest, but it is essential for the world we seek to create. There are lessons all around us about returning to this memory. We find wisdom in watching and learning from our non-human kin, plants, animals, other living beings who have not forgotten. This remembering helps us heal and return to our whole, true selves.
“I wonder if much that ails our society stems from the fact that we have allowed ourselves to be cut off from that love of, and from, the land. It is medicine for broken land and empty hearts.”
-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
For people living outside of the equator, winter has long been a time to slow down and rest, to follow the rhythm of the sun. In winter the days grow darker, the sun’s arc sits lower in the skyline leading up to and following the Winter Solstice. Days later the daylight grows longer, the “sun is reborn” as the arch of its trajectory moves higher in the sky until the time of the Summer Solstice.
While the sun continues to follow a similar path as the ones seen by the people of the Northern Hemisphere thousands of years ago, the activities of our days no longer reflect an observance and connection to the earth’s cycles. Many of us need to return to the ritual of being in rhythm with the sun and other cycles.
Rest and Restoration
Winter has traditionally been seen as a time of cleansing and death as the cold days and darkness remind us of life’s cycles. Our natural rhythms gravitate toward reflection, introspection, and integration. We hope that this holiday and winter season, you can slow down and rest, reflect. In this time, we recommend taking time to restore in the form of meditations, journaling, yoga, walking etc. Do the activities that help you restore and come back to yourself. Find the balance of restoration and rest in the form of…. not doing *anything, napping, binge-watching a fun show; it is an opportunity to give your mind and body a break. Many of us on the path of self-improvement forget that resting is critical and fill our time with restorative activities. We need both.
We encourage you to take the time to “be”, the time to “do” will come soon enough.
Thank you for being in our community and nourishing us in so many ways this year.
*We appreciate the wisdom and movement The Nap Ministry has unfolded and recommend others to follow.