I want to knit. I want to be in winter mode. I want snow.
This whole cultural consensus against the season that gives us the most permission to slow down and be ourselves… has always confused me. I’ve written about this at length before. But it feels newly clear to me as I gear up for one of my favourite times of the year. The time when the sun starts to set just a little bit earlier, and we all get permission to slowwww down.
an invitation inwards
This was an exceptionally outwards-oriented year for me, which is perhaps why I find myself craving this season of isolation so much more than usual this year… I got married this summer. It was a summer of summers! So much time spent turned outwards, preparing for the day, planning and attending events around it, and just generally gearing up for one of the days of the most visibility I’ve ever had in my life.
I think this season, that stretched me so far outside of myself, and into my community, has created a sort of elastic pendulum response where all I can dream and think about is being tucked away in a nest of my own alone time now.
I’ve always loved the way fall + winter give you this generous sense of permission to slow down and simply retreat into yourself. I find these seasons to be magnificently creative. I find that when I tend to the flame inside of me, I worry a lot less about and crave a lot less of the heat generated from flames outside of me. In other words: I feel like I simply need less of and from those around me. It’s like the earlier nights and darker days signal to something inside of me that we can finally rest again. We can land back home in ourselves and stop gushing energy outwards. We can tend to our own vessel, our own creations, and our own needs.
fall/winter ask: what do YOU want to do with your time?
This colder season, I have big creative goals. I want to be sharing three essays a week here, and three youtube videos a week for the next month. And hopefully for a while after that, as well.
I just want to nest. I want to pour into my home, into the meals and desserts I’ll make in my kitchen. Into the videos I’ll create. Into the writing I’ll share.
I always find these slower seasons offer more time for myself. More time to tend, to create, to nourish, to prune what no longer belongs in your life and let it die off…
This year, while it has been illuminating and so full of love, has also brought so much into the light, that also produced grief, death, shedding.
I feel like this fall and winter are about cleaning up my life, my home and my mind. Finally, with the time to actually retreat into myself and tend to the corners of my mind that have accumulated dust and cobwebs in a very outward season of my life, I am excited to cultivate that sense of spotlessness and cleanliness that is only reserved for those times when you’ve really tended to yourself.
If summer is about making a mess and spending time outside, then fall and winter about cleaning up and falling in love with spending time inside.
Know someone who needs some help falling in love with the colder months?
Some of my favourite fall/winter coded activities:
Knitting, learning a new pattern, spending the whole season making a project I am really excited about
Yin yoga in my living room by candle light (I just got a yoga bolster for even more at-home restorative practices and I am so excited for it…)
Cooking new recipes from cookbooks we already have
Baking elaborate recipes that take 1-2 days to fully complete (any kind of brioche dough / cinnamon roll type recipe you can easily stretch over a couple days… same with bread)
Cleaning out the home, getting rid of things we no longer need
Closet revamp: reorganizing + pruning + acquiring a few new aligned pieces…
Breaking a sweat inside - whatever workout you do, enjoy the way it makes you feel more cozy when it’s cold out
Reading! Candlelight! Nighttime! Winding down with a good book!
Nighttime walks
Getting cozy with all the winter accessories… (I never go anywhere without a scarf and gloves after half-way through September)
Opportunity to wear all my coats
Hosting cozy dinner parties
What do you do in the fall and winter months to enjoy yourself?
If you liked this, you will love my essay make things with your hands - similarly exploring some of the greatest joys of the more inwards seasons.
Upgrade to read my last two essays, ‘anything you force, you eventually need to undo,’ and ‘what’s the obvious, humbling thing right in front of your face?’. They’re good ones:
Follow along elsewhere
Follow me here, on X, Instagram, TikTok, and on YouTube. I am also releasing my YouTube videos as podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; you can follow along there as well to listen to the audio versions.
Winter is an excellent time to lock in with your goals. In my latest youtube video, I explain how to fall in love with the daily actions needed to bring your long-term dreams to life. Or, how to fall in love with discipline:
For 1-1 coaching to unlock your highest agency self, return to self-trust and get out of your own way, you can apply to work with me here.
I just started knitting a scarf this week; the winter cozies are in the air!!