When things die they are forced to rest. When someone dies we say they are resting in their grave. When winter comes around, and all of the summer growth dissipates; all of a sudden you can see the stream running through the forest again. What is vital is revealed again.

Winter comes and says, “Now you must rest and remember what is vital.” In many ways, when we force ourselves to return to what is vital, it feels like dying. We want so badly to build our own things to depend on. To be self-sufficient, but we are not.