A Season of Rest: 3 Things I Have Learned By Embracing Winter

2023 burned me out.

I know many of us can relate. For me, the year started off with an immediate back-to-school regimen, followed closely by a resumption of teaching classes. It kept picking up speed till, by May, I was feeling a little winded, to use the phrase. We ended that month with a quick and stormy planting of our brand new garden, launching ourselves into a summertime of cultivating the ground and investing time into our new home.

Then we hit August and it felt like someone lit rockets and the shuttle was taking off at near-lightspeed for the year's end. The activities and commitments felt endless. I fell into the middle of December too tired to make our annual cutout Christmas cookies, and sat down to put my feet up and read a book.

And I said, "Never again!"

Sounds familiar, right?

Some of us reading this will immediately want to answer with something along the lines of "Research adrenal fatigue" or "Check out nutritional deficiencies in XYZ vitamins and minerals" or "Just learn to say 'No', friend!" I know about all these things and they are good things to know, because we all should have a lot more energy than many of us do these days, but they are not the point of this post...

Around the middle of the year, I began meditating on the fact that everyone I met, when asked how they were doing, said to me (to paraphrase), "Oh, good but busy!" In the few minutes we had, we spent it talking about all the things we had to do at that given time. Very few times did we get beyond the day-to-day grind before one of us had to run off again.

Questions about the sanity of the constant revolving doors of our lives started percolating in the back of my mind, and somewhere along the line I thought about how peopled used to live. You know, before the invention of the amazing technologic tools we have today, which we often use more for mindless scroll-booking than intentional activity? (Is scroll-booking a word?!) I noticed how worn thin everyone around me seemed...

How frantic people on the roads became as we moved into the holidays...

The ads on Amazon Prime (we don't do regular television, so I can only imagine what that was like)...

The lack of time to spend with our friends...

The habitual overcommitting praised by our current society...

The rudeness...

The loneliness when we are surrounded by others and connected to anyone we ever wanted to meet through social platforms...

The overconsumption of just about everything, and not just foods...

Then one day in December, after I'd had the chance to slow down, read a couple cozy mysteries and eat as many non-cutout cookies as I wanted, as I was considering what I wanted to accomplish in the next year, it occurred to me that the only way to stop feeling the way I had all year long was to stop buying into busy.

So I did what I've always done at Christmas and unplugged the last week of of the year. This extended well into the next week, and I let myself savor the slowness of getting back into the groove of things as we prepared to resume school once again.

It wasn't until a day or two after my children went back to school that I finally got myself into gear – and what a wonderful sensation it was to feel like I did not have to rush! I think the slow start enabled me to consider how to approach my life day-by-day and week-by-week. I even bought a new planner that has helped me find more intentionality in my life (and become better at planning out my weeks and months so I feel less scattered).

I believe that most women want a little more savor in their day. They want to stop feeling like they are running to catch up and, instead, be mistress of their day from the off, even on those days when chaos does reign. (We all have those moments, after all!) They want to appreciate the special moments, the ordinary moments, and everything in between. It isn't that we have to stop doing things – I'm not certain that's possible these days – but I think that it is possible to stop buying into an unrealistic standard of perfection.

Over the past several years, I've been writing down words to reflect upon, and act upon, for the year. This year, mine are:

Creation. Intention. Simplicity. Surrender.

I love what each season brings into our lives. With springtime comes new beginnings, summer brings growth and high amounts of activity, autumn a rich harvest...

But this year, I wanted to embrace a little more winter in my life. Have you ever considered Winter in a broader sense? Yes, I'm not overly fond of the cold. Just ask my husband. I like being toasty warm.

However, Winter is where all of the good things in our year begin – the preparations, the restoration, the lying fallow to receive nutrients, the (re)birth process. While we don't want to hang out in Winter for long periods because it can lead to apathy and lethargy, it is a great place to give ourselves space to pause, consider, pray, and plan.

I want to invite us all to consider Winter in a slightly different light.

1) When we slow down, we are less likely to be reactive. Yes, I still have days where I feel more anxious about what's going on, especially on those full days where I feel like I have less time to myself. Yet, these are becoming fewer in number. I am learning that because I've slowed down, life is no longer leading me around. I am becoming more capable of reasonable control in my day-to-day, and surrendering more to the process of moving through all that I have no control over.

2) When we do less, our joy increases. When we open up to the idea of having a freer schedule, the blessings of the little things in life become more evident. I feel much more like Anne Shirley these days, finding enjoyment in noticing the details of life. The trees budding, the funny little sayings of my children, how my elephant garlic is coming up in their beds. The little joys stack up when there is space to pause.

While I'm by no means without employment, I am experiencing a little more balance, and I think that is what I've craved for several years now. I don't want to be a human doing, constantly on the run from one thing to the next. I do want a full human experience.

3) When we consider and pray, our plans are much more exciting. I don't know about you, but taking a little time to prepare myself for the next steps is exhilarating. I'm not a full-on planner by any means (especially when it comes to my writing). However, by sitting down to consider what I must do, I tend to be more organized and efficient.

My biggest win in this area is that I'm learning how to plan better. I'm not overfilling my days with to-do lists any longer. I'm simplifying my demands on myself, for I am a recovering perfectionist who expects an enormous amount of results (often more quickly than realistically). I am also making these demands more intentional and important to my overarching goals instead of getting side tracked by every little thing. This is one of the things that my planner has helped me with – just observing how unfairly I've treated myself in my expectations, and how to take the stress out of the things I love doing.

There is so much more I could say about this topic, and I probably will one day. For now I hope that the idea of Winter gives us all a place to pause, hope, and find space for the important things in life – or the small things. Like enjoying a cup of tea and a good book.

Ah, that does sound delightful!

Have you brought a little Winter into your life? How do you find it showing up?