Rot On!

It’s spring. Grass is growing, flowers blooming, birds singing—and yet quite often the season of our life does not match up with what is happening in nature.

The truth of this was quite evident recently in one of the creativity classes I teach using the book Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron.

One of the students came in rather quiet. Her spirit and energy were definitely inward. When it was her time to check in she said she had come to class even though she didn’t want to. She was in a very dark place and felt like she was buried, helpless, underground—and she certainly didn’t want to talk about it, nor did she want to process anything.

Her willingness to be truthful and real opened the door to a great discussion about how in nature there is a time for things to be in the dark, a time for things to decompose, rot, disintegrate. There are times when things are buried in the deep, dark, damp soil of the earth, a time when the death, decay and dying processes must occur in order for new life to sprout and grow again in spring in that eternal cycle of endings and beginnings and endings.

One of the women in class asked the question, “Why do we think we need to be happy and positive all of the time? We can’t always be blooming.”

How true. What or who makes us think we should? And does that belief contribute to the discomfort and even depression we feel during those times when we are in the dark? Do we quickly try to move through them? Do we pretend to be happy and blooming when we are not? Does nature try to hurry winter? Do the bulbs try to sprout before their time?

As a group we decided to celebrate this woman’s time of burial and decomposing. We acknowledged her for her courage to speak the truth about how she really felt, and we decided our slogan was to be:

Rot On!

Ingrid Kincaid is an internationally known storyteller, teacher and spiritual mentor. She is an intuitive reader of ancient runes. She gently shows her clients how to tap into their own inner wisdom by weaving together creativity, spirituality and ancient knowing. Ingrid is available for interviews, private consultations and group presentations. You can contact her at ingk@ingridkincaid.com or 415.652.3990.