Sometimes, when doing shadow work, it can feel lonely. It can feel like all of the birds flew south for the winter and you are all alone in the cold. All alone in the dark. All alone in a moment when you feel like you need a flock so badly. 

I had been thrashing at a shadow. Let’s be honest. I had been thrashing at a couple that seemed to be tangled together so closely that I couldn’t separate them. I had been alone with them, in the dark, in the cold, in isolation, wondering just how long this winter could possibly last. 

My legs were crossed and my eyes were closed. I was lost in meditation and feeling great about progress that I had made in these shadowy places of my soul. Without warning I heard it. It is an undeniable noise. One that I would know anywhere. The sound of the Canadian geese returning from the south echoed up the field. I jumped up. I was standing before I recognized that I had moved. I had done it. I made it through another long, cold, lonely winter and now my flock was returning. Shadow work is much like winter. The snow will always melt. The isolation will always end. The sun will always warm the earth again. The geese will always fly north again.