Flight of Rest

While the warm sun of summer leads us out of our homes and into our sense of adventure, winter’s gifts are wrapped up in warmth and rest inside our homes. Winter normally gets a bad reputation, especially in our Northern climate. It seems that most don’t love the cold, the snow, or shoveling; and while these things might make winter more difficult, I like to think it’s actually our inability to truly rest and step away from our culturally-ingrained need for productivity that leaves us filled with wintery dread.

What if we built the ritual of rest into our culture during these months—more days spent in our homes, more days for hot tea and coffee with friends, more time for inner work, personal growth, and time to weave the web of human connection?

How would we begin to create this type of luxury for ourselves?

Perhaps it’s the simple act of beginning where we can. A few more days worked from home, using our year’s holidays in January simply to perfect the art of snuggling in, saying no more than we say yes, or trying our hand at something uniquely winter (snowshoeing, making snow cream?). Maybe we even treat our bodies by eating warm foods when we’re away from our homes. Salad has its place, but there’s nothing that compares to a hot, one-pot meal in the dead of winter, even if it comes from a thermos.

Humans are a bit like purple martins in that we fly as a flock, looping and swirling together. All it takes is one person to begin the movement, and we’ll all gradually join in the flight together. Of course, this has its downfalls, but perhaps, we could use it for our betterment? One person gathers friends by a fire warming the cider, many prepare the stew; together we say yes to rest and say maybe later to all the other things. Enjoy and repeat.

Jacquelyn Toupin lives with her family in a heritage farmhouse that has been in her family for several generations. You can follow her on Instagram @my.sacred.wild