The Skeletal Tree

The Skeletal Tree

Every year when the days become shorter and the climate gets colder and the light gets darker, people grow sad. Flus and colds seem abundant. The skies, when it is daylight, are grey, colourless, lacklustre. People shiver as they scurry to and from work, huddling in big furry coats, eyes dull and turned towards the pavement. When it is Winter, people yearn for the Summer, they say this part of the year is when they struggle mood-wise. I certainly find Winter a difficult time, and no matter how often I remember that much of it is beautiful, I still get the blues. I feel low; I get thoughts that tell me I’ll never be successful or happy. ‘Your art’s no good, who would ever like it?’ says that annoying, wintery voice in my head.

Since studying Five Element Acupuncture, I have learnt much about the seasons and how the elements manifest during seasonal phases. I have learnt that Winter is supposed to be a time of stillness and of rest, a time when beings slow down and draw on their reserves to survive. In Winter, bare branches silhouette the pale, watery sky. Trees and plants have been reduced to a skeletal appearance. Frost glitters on evergreen leaves, ice hardens ponds and canals. There is not a lot of life showing itself on the surface. Much has gone underground: animals hibernate, seeds gestate like tiny foetuses developing towards their new lives in Spring. Rest is a part of life; it has to be. If it was Summer all the time, we would become exhausted, and this season would no longer bloom as magnificently.

In modern-day society, in which we are all constantly told to ‘achieve, achieve, achieve!’, it is no wonder so many of us get ill or sad during the Winter months. We’re trying to go against nature, go against the flow of life. To work during the time we are supposed to rest weakens our bodies and our minds. It leaves us feeling anxious, unprepared for the busyness that is to come later. I physically work just as speedily as I do in warmer seasons, and then I catch multiple flus and colds. My body aches and shivers. I feel sad about my art career in Winter when really it should be a time of gestation and inspiration, a time when ideas come to me and I allow them to develop underground. I need to listen to Winter more, to accept that it is Nature’s way of gently telling me to slow down and take a break. I need to be more like the Skeletal Tree, who stands still and serene, bare bones exposed, with a powerful resolve to carry on through hardship.