Welcoming Winter

"In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, whose windows and doors are half concealed, but from whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends."
Henry David Thoreau

For the first time in a long time, I am anticipating winter.  The season, yes, with its snow (predictions of multiple snows this year!) and cold, holing up and hunkering down, drawing closer to those around and ourselves, within.  

From a practical standpoint, I am stocking up on hearty soup makings and baking supplies, because...winter.

I am more largely embracing 'winter' in the sense of the shutting down, the 'Closed till May' sign on the figurative door, the boarding up until warmer days, on this blog, this place.  I think that this is a good time to quietly bring the shutter down on the 'hammock'.  I am at peace.  Arms wide to welcome the winter of less words but more inward life.  

I will be ever pushing forward - I am writing, just not here.  I have begun a book of sorts, on marriage, that will be given to my two offspring.  It is handwritten.  It is from the very well of my being.  It is a gift for each, upon their own engagement.  

Amidst the very throes of winter I will be lifting the warming lantern of light, a beacon of hope, when I speak,in February, for the first time ever, about my journey with depression, to the student body where I teach.  I can not think of anything more terrifying, yet more liberating both, in one moment.  If just one reaches up to grab the rope, it will be worth it all.  

Winter - a dormant time of reflection and stillness, before the bursting forth of something 'new'.  

I like that.  

Of course I couldn't close this blog with anything but Henry David Thoreau.  He paints such a picture of the perfect winter scene, doesn't he?  'A cottage under drifts'?  No way out and no way in but inside...oh love, inside, the fires burn wild and strong.  That's the winter I seek.  

Farewell and love to you all.  May winter be a source of sweet sentiment and  blissful stillness this year.  

That Moon Song