Embrace January

I was driving behind a car the other day that had a bumper sticker that I can't fairly certainly say I have never seen before. It said, "I Love Winter!"

Can you imagine?! While all of us pressing through the winter season where we are surrounded by frigid temperatures and low amounts of daylight are moaning and complaining, this person is the happiest of us all!

This year I find myself swinging between loving this month and suffering through it. I feel a sense of deep satisfaction at times at having less on my calendar so I actually have time for some projects that have been grinding away at my soul that I can never get to!  I feel my soul getting renewed after the burnout of the Holiday season and the busy seasons of summer and fall.

Here we are in winter where we can do our form of "human hibernation." We can enjoy going to bed early & snuggling up with a bowl of popcorn and a movie in a warm house after dinner without feeling some compulsion to run and do this or that. January could very well be the balm that our soul needs to recover and prepare for the busy seasons of spring, summer & fall just around the corner.

But swinging to the other side, there is a certain "suffering" to January. We have longed for our lives to slow down and here when it does, "boredom" pops up its head and makes us uncomfortable. We've been so addicted to intensity that when a smidge of margin comes into our schedules there is a certain pain and panic that we think we need to add something instead of letting yourself "be there" and instead of running and adding, embrace the time of reprieve, grab that luxury of time to get to that "important thing" that has been shelved for so long. Don't fall into the "panic"/"adding" trap, choose the "being"/"staying" small voice. Exchange the temporary relief of soothing the pangs of "drying out" for the long term satisfaction of deep soul work of contentment.

I'm with you the fight!