wintering vol 10

Well, friends. It’s the end of this series and I’m sad. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing these and doing this together! I don’t want to stop, but the plan was for December and I’m just so thrilled with how this has gone. I hope you are too. I might be able to pick it up again in February, but for now, I hope these 10 emails (13 if you upgraded to the $5/month option!) have given you enough comfort and inspiration to carry you through.

If not, I wrote a wintering edition for January! If you’re on the $5/month option, you’ll get an email from me with a code to download the book for free. If you aren’t subscribed to that, you can purchase the book here for $5! It’s a PDF you can download to your phone or computer or you can link it to your kindle through your kindle email address. I hope you enjoy it as much as you’ve enjoyed this email/blog post series!

But it’s not over yet, so let’s get to it.

---

In this wintering volume :

• Something to do

• Something to read

• Something to listen to

• Something to think about

---

Something to do :
I hope that in at least one of these emails, you’ve found a new idea, a new activity, a new book, or a new habit that you enjoy. Trying new things can be hard (ask me, the person who has ordered the same meals and the same drinks for twenty years), but we can’t really figure out what we like if we aren’t trying new things. So, this week, you’re going to try a new drink.

Revolutionary? No.

But it can be fun and you might find a new thing that you’ll really love.

Try a new coffee shop and ask the barista to make you the most popular drink or their favorite drink or just try the drink you always see and think “that looks good” but you don’t order it because you’re afraid it will be trash and waste your money. This time, don’t think of it as a waste. If you hate the drink, then you’re paying for the experience and to have something new to do one day this winter.

If you can’t get out of the house to go to a coffee shop, gather some ingredients at the grocery store and make a new drink at home!

If you are free to drive somewhere, and you’re in the US, check out this list of cozy coffee shops. You might find one near you!

---

Something to read :
It’s another kids book recommendation, but I hope you don’t mind! I am just a sucker for a sweet story, cheese puns, and beautiful illustrations!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Mice by Annie Silvestro

---

Something to listen to :

I made a playlist for you! Just a few calm songs for those melancholy days when you need to listen to something easy.

wintering - spotify

wintering - apple music

---

via Jessica Boeman

---

Something to watch :

For the grownups :

Stardust (netflix)
Good Will Hunting (Hulu)
Serendipity (netflix)

For the kids :

My Neighbor Totoro (HBO max)
Mary Poppins (Disney+)
Anastasia (Disney+)

---

---

Something to think about :

I turn the lights down low when it’s dark outside and when the sun comes up, I pull back the curtains and lift the blinds. If the sun is set, the inside of our home is lit with dim lights and when the sun is up, it’s filled with the brightest natural light. I’m trying to synch our bodies to the rhythm of the sun, rather than trying to hold on to light that isn’t here anymore. I don’t have fight in me this year. I don’t want to push back against the winter, I want to winter with the winter.

All these things we’re doing as we’ve been wintering together aren’t about escaping the reality that we’re in, but surrendering to it. We don’t do well with discomfort, do we? So we find ways to soften the ground we’re walking on. This is human and good and healthy. We don’t always have to bootstrap it. Sometimes, we can just take the boots off. We don’t always have to fight.

We can be slow for a season.
We can be quiet.
We can be still.

As we head into the months that are the hardest and the coldest, remember that Christ is never far from you. He hasn’t hidden himself from you. He hasn’t run away from you. You don’t have to fight for his presence, he’s already with you. Even when the curtains are drawn and it’s dark and you’re feeling like winter will never end. He’s with you then and he’s with you when the sun comes up. He doesn’t change, even as the seasons do.

Have you ever read The Practice the Presence of God by Brother Lawerence? It’s an old book, written with a lot of thus’s and thy’s, but he talks about how being in the presence of God is often little more than acknowledging that he’s there. I love the way that he talks about prayer :

“Prayer is so simple. It is like quietly opening a door and slipping into the very presence of God. There, in the stillness, to listen to His voice, perhaps in petition or only to listen. It matters not. Just to be there in His presence is prayer.”

We can get in our heads about a lot of things and sometimes that can make us get panicky and worried that we aren’t doing the right things. We look at God as if he’s waiting to swoop in and condemn us at any given moment. As if he hates what he’s created so much that he can’t wait to exclude us from his presence forever. We turn our faith into checklists and strive to please God in ways he’s freed us from.

Sometimes, it’s harder to believe that God is good and kind and patience and faithful than it is to believe that he’s full of wrath. But the thing that sets our God apart from all other gods is that he is a God who is with us. His kindness draws us and his love has freed us. When we surrender to that truth, we can rest.

I hope you can remember that as you surrender to the winter and all that’s within it. I hope your heart is open to whatever the Lord has to put inside and I hope that it surprises you in all the best ways.

Here’s to joy, hope, and peace and lots of warm drinks over the next few months.

They’re in closer reach than we think.

---

Happy wintering, my friends.