follow nature’s path
connect to the earth’s rhythm
you will find peace there
In the northern hemisphere, daylight is fading. We are entering the shortest days of the year.
And yet instead of rushing, nature is slowing down.
It’s not trying to hold onto itself.
It doesn’t fear what’s to come.
The animals are stocking up for winter. Rabbits bound through the backyard. Squirrels and chipmunks scurry about.
Human beings, for all our superiority, in some respects seem to be the least evolved.
We alone among the inhabitants of the earth fear the unknown.
We alone try to exert control over what is to come.
We alone try to fit more into shorter days as we race against imaginary deadlines created by man-made calendars.
Is it any wonder that we suffer increasing rates of anxiety?
We’ve disconnected from the rhythms of the earth.
We’ve lost our grounding.
Lately I’ve been playing with a thought experiment:
What if I had no access to power and electricity?
If I could only use daylight hours for working, how would I navigate the shorter days that are coming?
To honor this, I’d have to cut out a lot.
But what might that free up?
In an era where we could work 24/7, this feels like it could be a helpful and healthy constraint.
A way to reconnect to the rhythms of nature.
It would be a huge disruption to my current ways of working — which have become unhealthy.
It feels like a worthy experiment to play with.
It also feels a little scary.
That alone makes it worth serious consideration.
Would you be up for the challenge? How would you adapt your current working style to fit everything into daylight hours?
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