On Wintering

I’m not making any New Year’s resolutions. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I made one. 

Frankly, the middle of a cold dark winter is a pretty crap time to do that. I grew up in St Petersburg, Russia, where the January day is only about four hours long - if the sun is not blocked by the thick, low clouds that is (the summer months do make up for it with the sun pretty much never setting at all but that’s not the point). 

London, UK, where I live now, is not much better in that regard. It’s dark, cold and miserable on most days and I hardly want to get out of my pyjamas, let alone leave the house. 

To set new ambitious goals in the middle of the winter seems, ahem, well, a bit ambitious. I know from experience I’ll never stick to them. 

So I don’t - but that doesn’t mean I don’t dream up some ideas and scribble some loose plans as inspiration strikes - it’s just that I’m not trying to keep myself accountable to them, not just yet anyway. 

In her book Wintering: The Power of Rest and …