In Maine, we have moved from deep winter to late winter and will soon be approaching the purgatory that is mid-March. But we still have a few weeks to go until purgatory, and in the meantime winter reigns, that time of shadows on the snow. How I love to see the shadows in our backyard.
The way the slats from the fence register on the snow,
the way the blue shadows stripe the yard,
and the way the dark shadows fill the woods.
Such a beautiful season, and even though staying warm is expensive, I never wish for winter to hurry into spring. Each year, I welcome winter with a glad heart and am always renewed by this still, cold season that encourages a person to turn inward.
While we don’t want to turn inward indefinitely—we need spring and the exuberant return to life—winter, for me at least, is a necessary time to examine personal shadows and try to come to terms with them.
If this sounds very Jungian, well, it is. Years ago, I blasted through the books of the late, great Canadian writer Robertson Davies, who was a great admirer of Carl Jung, author and psychiatrist, among other things. If I remember correctly, Davies maintained that Jung, with his emphasis on the unconscious, was the patron saint of artists, all of whom, one way or another, dig deep into the unconsciousness to produce art. The deeper the dive, the greater the art. (By art, I mean art in general, which includes literature, dance, music, theater, and, yes, movies.)
Therefore, as I am surrounded by the shadows of winter, I settle in to read and think and write.
Spring will come soon enough.
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Listening
Bob Dylan: “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Bob Dylan, a musician who has been much in the news because of the bio pic A Complete Unknown, certainly dug deep to write his songs. “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” beautifully illustrates this.
Notes From the Hinterland 