Winter Hibernation

When the alarm went off this morning at 5:30 I rebelliously kept my eyes clamped shut and then rolled over in smug satisfaction.  The wake up call wasn't for me...Weldon was heading to work. Today would be the first weekday since summer that I would have the house to myself and nowhere else to be. Weeks ago I knew a day like this would come: the holiday train would come to a slow and screeching halt and the mounting list marked "After the Holidays" would stare me in the face.  Should I wash my refrigerator, schedule my appointments, cull the overflow from the cabinets, organize the spare room, or finalize the 2013 financials first?  D. None of the above. Late last night I decided that the list could (should) wait.  Instead, I defied the morning alarm's call to action and stayed in bed to watch the darkness outside my bedroom curtain become hinted with light and finally awash in a luminous gray.  As I lay there contemplating what the day, the week, the next twelve months might hold, I realized that this was one of the beautiful things that winter is really all about.



The dictionary definition of hibernation includes words like "withdraw", "seclusion", "retire", "close quarters", and "dormant".  I don't know about you, but right about this time each year words like these are music to my ears.  And yet, right about this time each year I also feel compelled to catch up on what I can from last year and gear up for everything I want to accomplish this year. Do you sense a bit of conflict?  My internal wiring is such that I crave down time and solitude on a regular basis.  However, I have just as strong a need to be active and productive, engaged and engaging.  In all honesty, it's usually easier for me to deny the former and get on with the latter.  But are not both equally important?  While there's a certain sloth-like connotation to the idea of lazing around with nary a stimulation, I like to consider the flip side of the perspective.  Hibernation is a beneficial time of recovery for what has been and preparation for what will be.  Nature has set the ultimate example for this kind of repose.

Eeny, Meeny...why choose only one?

I'm certain I'll be plenty productive in the coming days, weeks, and months, but today was a hibernation kind of day.  I draped on my couch and peered out the window at a dreary early morning.  I stayed in my pajamas and pulled up the hood of my sweatshirt, feeling snug.  I took on and abandoned tasks as my interest dictated. (In hindsight, I still got a bunch of things done!) But I took time for reflection and let my mind meander as it willed. I jotted ideas that came to me and made mental note of the day's simple pleasures: breakfast waiting for me on the counter thanks to Weldon, two Christmas gift artisan-made lap blankets keeping me company on the couch, a stack of new books and cookbooks to inspire me, the stillness of my dormant house, leftover pizza and salad for lunch, a clean kitchen with no cooking to be done, a homemade haircut (woefully overdue), and best of all...a silent and oh so rare snowfall blanketing the view outside my windows!

Breakfast is served!

Instead of being a reason to look forward to summer, I've learned to appreciate winter for what Nature intended it to be (at least in northern climes) -- a time for restoration and mediated productivity.  Especially now that the holidays have been given their proper due, I don't want to rush past the rest of the season with too many projects and activities.  I want winter to be my own opportunity for hibernation.  I hope that as you embrace the dawning of 2014, you, too, can sink into a bit of hibernating to restore your body and soul.

Happy New Year!