For many of us, Winter is in full bloom – yes, even Winter blossoms.  As this season moves through us, we have the opportunity to wake up to so many things.  At the surface, crisp cool air flows around our skin and pours into our lungs.  Snow flakes fall, bodies of water turn to ice.  Leaves disappear and animals become scarce.  At a deeper level, there is renewal.  We experience feeling states that have come to be associated with the holiday season – joy, compassion, sentimentality, and the various moods that arise and fall away.  The New Year arrives and we start anew, as we have done so many times before.  At a deeper level still, we touch the nature of our forever changing world.  We sense directly birth and death, and the impermanence of all that has ever been and will ever be.

Today, as cool air chills your body, breathe deeply and draw the air into your lungs.  Open to the sensation and experience it without thinking about it.  Notice the physical changes to your body.  Rather than remark “I am cold” or “It’s freezing,” (for once you use words to describe your experience, you stop experiencing it) empty your mind of such thoughts and glide into the moment.

Then, as you feel the air inside your lungs, visualize your child breathing and bring your attention to your child’s rising and falling belly.  The cycle of life flows within your beautiful child’s every inhalation and exhalation.  Place your hands on your belly and feel your belly slowly rise and fall.  Then, imagine placing your hands on your child’s belly.  Do this for a few moments.  Then, expand your awareness even farther and sense the breathing of nearby animals – birds, dogs, mice.  As you continue to breathe deeply, sense the breathing of other people, and of plants and other animals throughout the world.  Then, return to your own breathing.  Feel you belly pressing again the palms of your hands.

By moving awareness from your body to your child’s, and then to life around you, you enliven the interconnectedness between you and the cosmos.  Returning to your body, your ground yourself more fully in the present moment.  This is an exercise you can do any moment of the day, whatever the season.  But cold air and your connection to your child can serve as a helpful cue and deepen the experience.