Are you in a mud season? : The Wednesday 1-2-3


Happy Wednesday!

Here's 1 teaching, 2 questions, and 3 resources to explore this week!


1. Teaching

We all know the four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

But if you live in the Northeast of the United States, you might know a fifth: the mud season.

Existing sometime between the depths of Winter and the emergence of Spring, the mud season occurs when the snowpack begins to melt but the lower layers of ground remain frozen, unable to receive any water attempting to percolate down.

The result: miles of deep, squishy, squelchy mud.

My friend James A. Pearson speaks of this in-between time: "It’s a season of limbo.⁣ Too warm to stay huddled inside. But too muddy to get very far. Too cold to plant. But late enough that crops need starting.⁣"

In his poem, "The Mud Season," he invites us to explore our own inner mud seasons.

Patience darling,
it's still too early
to trust the season
with that tenderness you hold
in your globed hands.
I can feel it, too—
the yearning to plant
your fingers in the warming earth
and release what's so alive in you
into the scrum of all life.
But the ground's still frozen
beneath the mud.
And winter on its way out
will take with it anything
that opens too soon.
So hold your longing
a little longer
in the sheltered care of your body,
like soft green starts
on the windowsill of your heart,
seeds from the tree
of good and evil.

2. Questions

  1. What does it feel like in your body to trudge through the mud of this inner season?
  2. How are you tending to the "soft green starts" of longing that you hold within you?

3. Resources


Sending you good vibes,

Andrew

P.S. Tomorrow night is my guided journaling event, An Evening of Asking Questions! If you're interested in becoming more acquainted with your inner questions, sign up to attend this 60-minute virtual event!

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The Wednesday 1-2-3

Inner work frameworks, practices, and questions – all in a five-minute read. Delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning before you even wake up. Written and curated by Andrew Lang.

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