Winter Winter

I've been thinking about Rilke's words, that winter is that mysterious time of year when the world turns inwards. I can't remember his exact phrasing, but it was something like that. A time for withdrawing perhaps, to re-evaluate things. Rilke was an artist who was profoundly aware of natural cycles, and how they affect us. We are not cut off from things in his world. We can certainly be cut off from people - either through choice or accident - but the world itself is always there. 'Trust in things', he once wrote (and this is a quote I can remember!), 'for they will never let you down.' Perhaps he means that our being here, in the world, is enough of a reassurance, whether we are going through winters or summers of our own, of those of Mother Nature herself.