Metta Film: Winter’s Request

As the mountain snows begin their retreat and we pass through the threshold of the Spring Equinox, it is good to reflect upon the gifts and challenges of winter. Doing so is especially poignant as we look to the future and realize that winters as we know them may change significantly or pass away in the coming decades. Please enjoy this beautiful meditation on winter by Metta Earth team member Kate Eiseman through photographs, spoken word, and the written word.

For every habitat, there is a soundscape, distinct and distinguishing.

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In this place, in this moment, there is the call of the rooster, the bleat of the sheep. There is the sound of the purple mountains that surround – a quiet hum, a steady calm.

When I arrived in October, I noticed the silence before I noticed the sound. The growing season was near complete, the retreats winding down for the winter. I too looked forward to an opportunity to live with the cold months that would come. In fact, it was that wish to respond to the season that had inspired my application for a winter residency at Metta Earth in the first place.

I’ve welcomed the silence as it settles into my feet. I’ve picked up on the patterns of speaking too. It wasn’t one week before I noticed myself asking about the wants of those things that I’d long considered inanimate: where does this salt-shaker want to sit for the night? What color does this squash want to be around the rim?

I’ve learned that the pattern reflects a yogic understanding of consciousness in all things. I’ve learned to question an existing understanding of what is animate and what is not. I’ve learned a language that emerges from a broad and unwavering respect for all life and life-giving.

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My wish was to share the Metta Earth soundscape in a simple winter film – still images, steady breath, space for silence. My intention was to recreate the sounds from the inside of our purple mountain bowl.

On a cold January day, Lily O’Hara, Jenny Moffett, and I sat at the kitchen table, tea in our hands, and asked a simple question: what does the winter request? From that conversation emerged this film.