How’s your January been? Right now there are big, fat snowflakes falling and the valley is socked-in with a wintery fog. I am inside, toes tucked into fuzzy slippers, cocooned on the couch with a dog in my lap and a heating pad on my still-sore hip flexor. There are worse ways to spend a day.

There has been talk of the word “winter” as a verb in some of the circles I follow, and it has been a resonant notion for me, especially as I find myself less mobile and a wee bit more tender than usual this season.

“Wintering is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs,” writes Katherine May. “Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”

Could we welcome the winter as a time for replenishment, even transformation? (- On Being Podcast)

I have always struggled to find my hustle and gumption in the winter months but would often try to just push through: set resolutions, get up at 5 am to drive through a blizzard to attend a Spin class, etc. I look back on those motions now and want to say to younger me, “Stop! Please! Rest! Your body is weary and needs time to rejuvenate!” I spent so many years overriding my body’s needs and cries for attention but am basically done with that FOREVER and have been learning to tune into the deep, beautiful wisdom within me. How kind, how steadfast that it is still there after almost a lifetime of my silencing it. It waited like a tiny seed.

This pain in my hip, this pain that is often disheartening and annoying, has also created an unexpected chance to unapologetically rest. To surrender to a softening, to see the beauty in the stillness.

(Mackie is a Wintering Guru)

Aside from lots of resting, reading, napping, show-watching and stretching, we have also been busy with school and work and the usual demands of life. The girls are so happy to be back in school, and it’s so good for the whole family to be back in a bit more of a rhythm, although the undercurrent of pandemic anxiety still has a deep power to it. When we sent them back in January, I didn’t think I felt all that anxious but (TMI alert) I only pooped one time that whole week (I warned you). My mind felt OK but my body was all clenched up, telling me that there was a perceived threat. The roller coaster of pandemic-related emotion continues to be a fascinating ride. One hour, I feel at peace, and like, “Hey! The vaccine will be here before we know it!” and then the next I am overcome with a crippling sense of dread and whisper to my brain, “The worst is yet to come. Buckle up, sister.”

If the two extremes of the Covid Life-Choice Plan are:

1. Living in an underground bunker, eating pork and beans from a can until the virus has run its course and any survivors have been vaccinated or
2. French-kissing strangers at a Gatsby-themed party hosted in a confined indoor space with poor ventilation

then I like to think we are somewhere on the scale where moderate caution and social responsibility reside, while also trying to balance the mental/physical/emotional needs of our family. But: it’s not perfect! There are so many grey areas and it’s hard to navigate.

Here are a few things you should know:

-If, like me, you have personally been testing the limits of how long you can go between hair washings and have more layers of dry shampoo on your scalp than you ever thought possible, I highly recommend incorporating a scalp scrub into your routine. It really removes the build-up and helps your head feel like a clean slate so you can be inspired to see if you can make it eight days until your next shampoo. (I like this one. Yes, it’s on the pricey side but if you only wash your hair bi-monthly, it lasts all year!)

-Did you know you can broil steak? We don’t eat a lot of meat, so when I do purchase some, I want to make sure it’s cooked to perfection but I have been intimated by steak in the past…not wanting to overcook it, but not being confident about how best to prepare it. The answer, as it turns out, lies in the broiler of your oven! Who knew?

-The best shows I can recommend right now include: Pen15, Ted Lasso and The Crown. What have you been watching?

I hope you get some time to winter this season. And that when we come out of our hibernation in the spring we will be more rested, truer version of ourselves…ready for whatever comes next.