Waiting on the Cold White

The stark, icy cold of winter has yet to grace the north— the whiteness, the no-complication, the no-contour, the many shades of white layered on various shades of gray. Today I see remnants of autumn with its hollowness. I feel a void of seasonal change— the uncertainty of the Oaks as they hold tight to their few remaining leaves, the green mosses shine chartreuse, confused though brilliant, shrouded in a near-blue frost as they await the chance to rest and lie dormant. Today they still feel the heat of the Earth warming their tiny roots and reaching towards the suns periodic kisses on the tips of their beings.

I remain in hope that starkness will arrive ridding the landscape of the complication of muted hues and lake water that still moves under the too-thin layer of uncertain ice. I cling to the hope that the presented landscape will once again offer me a blank page on which to spew my new aspirations and my, as yet recognized, winter-oriented insights.


I’ve always appreciated, even needed, the starkness of winter and its simplicity. The freeze offers opportunities— a snapshot moment but for months on end, allowing nature to slow and stand still. In other seasons varying, vibrant colors are on display, swaying in both graceful and severe movements. Scents grab us and throw us into the past, our eyes are tempted into the spectrum of hues and the birds awaken us with their symphonies of sound. The eyes, the ears, the nose, can be caught in a sensual whirlwind. But winter is less demanding, offering time to hibernate, even contemplate about where we’ve been and where we are headed. We can dream about the blessings of warmth, appreciate the slow thaw and its accompanying new growth, small eruptions of green on the thinning blanket of white, bubbling over with possibility.

Time, space and quiet are conducive to the creative energy reset, a re-contextualizing, an embracing of the heat of new perspectives after which we can once again honor the words— “Hope springs eternal.”

Tricia Schwaba, December 26, 2023

Full Circle Wellness

In 1998 I helped create a group that would exploring the idea of wellness before wellness was called wellness. After discussing our collective intention we discussed names for our group and came up with a good one— I see that now. I wrote the following poem in honor of our journey.

I post this to remind myself my path has been consistent throughout my life. I don’t ever remember a time when I didn’t wonder how I could better, or more expeditiously, heal myself or how I could inspire others to take loving care of themselves. Perhaps I’ve come full circle.

Tricia Schwaba (nee Tricia Higgins) 1998

The Energy Codes-- Dr. Sue Morter,

“Dr. Valerie Hunt at UCLA was the first to discover the relationship between changes in our biofield and our health, and she determined that problems in the body actually start in the energy field. “Until now,” she said, “many human diseases have been characterized as ‘etiology unknown.’ In other words, the cause of the disease could not be determined, and therefore the only possible treatment was alleviation of symptoms. But physiological symptoms appear because of the field disturbance. If we correct the disturbance in the field, the symptoms disappear and we have been healed. If we treat the symptoms directly, then when a stressful situation once more aggravates the incoherent energy that is the source of the problem, the disease condition returns.””

— The Energy Codes: The 7-Step System to Awaken Your Spirit, Heal Your Body, and Live Your Best Life by Sue Morter

Adrienne Rich on Love from The Marginalian

An honorable human relationship… in which two people have the right to use the word ‘love,'” Adrienne Rich wrote, “is a process, delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved, a process of refining the truths they can tell each other.”

Rich continues— “…”it is important to do this, because we can count on so few people to go that hard way with us