Are you "wintering"?

By the time mid-February rolls around, are you done with winter?  This has been a particularly strange winter here in PEI.  Very little snow….and it’s often followed by ice pellets, rain and freezing rain.  It doesn’t make for a pleasant winter at all.  Just a rather icy mess.  My niece’s husband broke his ankle heading outside to salt the sidewalk.  My sister took a tumble on our driveway and sprained her ankle.

​Another weather warning is in place for this weekend – more rain and ice pellets.  Makes you just want to pull the covers up over your head, doesn’t it?
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Well, every now and again, that’s not such a bad idea.  We lead lives of such “busy-ness” – squeezing in work, volunteering or serving your community, raising a family, keeping a house in some semblance of order and, on rare occasions, taking a deep breath and getting ready to do it all over again.  Striving to find and possibly even maintain some kind of life balance.

My “go to” is knitting – 100%.  Some people meditate or do yoga; some folks go for a run (with or without a four-legged companion).  Maybe you bake or play the piano or get lost in a book.  I find that, if I don’t spend a little time each day relishing the repetitive rhythm of my knitting needles, my brain feels exhausted.  And winter is the perfect time for knitting.  The evenings are long and the temperatures are chilly.  At the end of the work day, to curl up in my chair with a fur beast (or two) in my lap and work a few rows, perhaps lighting a lovely scented candle….well, to me, that is as good as a vacation.

We sometimes have to remind ourselves that we not only deserve to do those things that replenish our soul – we need to do so!  Both the human spirit and physical body are no different than other living things in nature.  You would not expect your garden to thrive without water, sunshine and nourishment.  Your garden needs you to pull those weeds that will take over if given a chance.  Crop rotation allows the garden to replenish its nutrients.  We also need to nurture ourselves if we expect to be able to grow, to give, to love.  And we need to be able to do so without any guilt.
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When I read this piece by Donna Ashworth, it really resonated with me.  With her permission, I am sharing it today.  

It’s February – often the coldest and snowiest month of the year.  Be gentle with yourself if you find you are “wintering”.  If you allow yourself that time, your personal spring will most certainly return and you will face the longer days refreshed and ready to be the force of nature that you are!