I teach that we are mammals, governed by sun, moon and seasons. In winter the bear hibernates, the honeybees sleep, and none of them apologize for resting. This session honors the pause.

Cover yourself with something warm. Rest a palm on your chest and breathe through your heart, in for three and out for five. Breathe in the silvery silence of the winter sky and exhale noise like gray smoke. Enter the cave of winter, lined with soft green moss and smelling of soil, cedar and pine, and power down like a sleeping bear. Feel your spine turn to ancient weathered wood. Let golden sap drain from your busy mind into your roots, and push those roots down to bedrock. Watch swirling worries freeze into crystalline new patterns.

It was 34 degrees in Florida that morning. When I played the bowls with my fingertip, the overtones came out crisp, like snowflakes. You have made progress even in stillness.