love letter to winter
Dear Winter,
I love you. Have I expressed it enough? I love, love, love, love you.
I know you get a lot of hate. People don't like the darkness coming early, dislike the cold, and get sad. They pine for spring before winter even ends. They can't wait for summer! Not me, though. When summer is here, I can't wait for winter.
How many different reasons can I give? If I sat here all day, I bet I could come up with hundreds. I'm only going to focus on a few themes because while this letter is for the season, it's humans who will be reading it.
Stillness, low energy, rest, and reflection.
The frantic pace of brighter, warmer months softens as winter arrives, after the holiday panic and gathering season. In winter, you have permission to rest more often, move slower, and spend more time reflecting (less time producing). In winter you pause. In winter, everything pauses.
Low social expectations as people tend to internal needs; no-guilt no's because people "get it."
The shift in social expectations is one of my favorite parts of winter and aside from cold weather walks, one of the reasons I fell in love in the first place. People don't fill every weekend on the calendar, and if you decline invites they're much more forgiving. They understand in a way they cannot in warmer weather because they want to go out and be in the warmer weather. (This is not something I want that often - warmer weather brings sensory overload which colder weather does not trigger.) There's a thread of grace in winter that everyone holds for each other. it's the only time of year that people match my energy.
Cold weather walks, sunsets, and seeing into the depth of the forest (no leaves to block the distance).
Since the air is sharp & crisp, I can finally breathe. Walking along a trail in colder months, you can see deep into the forest - distant trees that spring and summer leaves hide. Taking a walk with a friend recently, she remarked on how dead and disgusting everything looked without blooms and color. I remarked on how you can see for miles. She didn't think that was beautiful, but I do.
Snow, warm food and drinks, and enjoying indoor activities.
Winter amplifies some of our smaller comforts. Before the kids wake up, snow dampens everything, a nice quiet blank page waiting for the story to come. Light reflects differently; at night, if you take a picture of a snowy landscape, it looks like daytime. Life is temporarily transformed, and then it melts. If you stay indoors, you're invited to do the things you love: read, creative projects, slow evenings, a pot of soup, hot cocoa. The beginning of winter brings grand social events; the end brings small, steady, and grounding moments.
Winter comes with its own texture and presence; where others see the "absence of" other things, I see stillness, depth, and restoration.
Spring will come, it does every year. Before then, I'm enjoying the space and time to breathe.
xo Max