I'm actually looking forward to winter this year

I know, I can't believe it either

Hey, folks. This week I included and audio version for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

I have a friend who lives in the Upper Peninsula. Like, as Upper Peninsula as you can get and still be in the United States, way up on Lake Superior. Also, she’s out in the woods. She has to use a snowmobile to get into town sometimes. Various roads are closed for months due to snow or mud. As she revealed the details of her life over the years of our friendship, I realized she essentially lives in Alaska, only in the lower 48.

Not surprisingly given where she lives, she loves winter. Like, really, really loves winter. I think you have to in order to live someplace like that.

I am generally not a person who loves winter. It is normally my least favorite season. I lean heavily toward the mild, transitional seasons of fall and spring. Extremes of any sort, including summer heat, are too much. Also, why does it feel like summer and winter are always way too long while spring and fall are too, too short?

Often this time of year, I start to get a sinking feeling as the days get shorter and grayer. This year, not so much.

Maybe the reason I’m not dreading winter is because it hasn’t actually been that cold yet, even though we’re halfway through November. It certainly hasn’t been as gray and rainy as it would normally be in fall. Here in southern Indiana, it’s been so dry that we were under a no burn order last week.

Winter also always signals the long break between semesters for me and that’s certainly something to look forward to rather than something to dread. Maybe all of that explains why I’m actually looking forward to winter this year, but I think it’s more than that.

This summer and fall were particularly busy and, at times, stressful. I brought my young adult novel out into the world and tried to arrange something like a book tour that lasted all the way into November. I had a tooth removed and all the attendant effects of that. At the college, we had a departmental review and I’m up for my first post-tenure review, both of which involved organizing a lot of visits to my classroom and then having people observe my classroom, which is always a little anxiety-producing.

My final book event was last weekend. The final observation for all the various reviews was last week. It’s probably no wonder that winter is looking so appealing, given that there are no more events or reviews on my horizon.

I’m looking forward to winter because it is a time of rest and, this year, I need it. I need it badly.

This winter, I’m leaning into what winter is supposed to be—a necessary reboot. The world slows down in winter because that’s what we need. It’s what our bodies need. It’s what our minds need. What our spirits need. It’s what the trees and the grass and the animals all need. A fucking break. We need a fucking break.

This winter, I plan to spend a lot of time on my couch with a book. The gas fireplace will be on. There will be blankets. Sometimes, I will be blessed enough to have multiple cats using my soft body as their own personal heating pad. My lovely husband will bring me tea and sometimes, a cocktail.¹ Every fifty pages or so, I will put my book down, close my eyes, and fall asleep, because napping is one of my super-powers.

Sometimes I’ll get up off the couch to cook something warm and delicious. Lots of soups and casseroles and galettes. My supply of winter squash is good. I’m ready. I’ll buy oranges, enough to eat at least one a day, which is something I do all winter long, because the season for citrus is winter and oranges taste horrible in the summer. In winter, they’re a bright burst of sunshine in your mouth.

These light pink roses in the gloomy dark of our dining room felt very winter to me

I will eat lots of holiday cookies and candy and other delicious snacks. My body wants to eat and eat and get a little fat over the winter, because that’s what our bodies are meant to do and this winter, I will go with it. Send me all your best winter treats.

When I need a break from eating and napping and reading and being a human cat-warmer, I’ll go for a walk. One of the things I’ve learned from my UP friend is how to be outside in winter. The key is to just go ahead and spend the money on the right clothes for cold weather. I now own many pairs of fleece-lined leggings, as well as some fleece-lined jeans. Last year, I bought a puffy coat with a fur-lined hood. I have hats and gloves and for the very coldest time of year, some fancy Under Armour insulating stuff.

I’ll walk when the snow is coming down. I’ll walk when the temperature drops below freezing. Even when the temperature drops below zero. I’ll walk along the river, where the wind comes whipping off the water, but which is blessedly quiet again in the winter with all the tourists and people who are not so well-equipped for the cold gone at last. I’ll have the river all to myself some days. The only sound will be the whispering of the papery birch tree bark.

I’m looking forward to winter because I live in a tourist town now and there’s not much to see or do here from December through February. In those months, the town will belong to us again.

I’m looking forward to winter because the garden will no longer call to me. The plants are quiet. The world is waiting. A lot happens in that waiting. Stillness is important. I’m ready to be still.

This winter, I will walk beside the river. I’ll step off the brick sidewalk and follow the sloping grass down to the

shore. I’ll get as close as I can to the water that flows in all the seasons. I’ll sit on the pebbly rocks and lift my face to the winter sun and remember that nothing that comes after is possible without this pause.

I’ve got zero events to advertise because that’s over. If you want to find me, I’ll be on the couch. But if you’re looking for the perfect book for that sporty, plucky, take-no-shit, girl or woman in your life, this young adult novel would be perfect. Trust me.

1. Honestly, the cocktail will probably be a gin and tonic, even though it’s a summer drink. We haven’t discovered a winter drink that’s quite as easy and delicious. Suggestions welcome.