How to Love Winter + Celebrating Solstice
Tomorrow begins Winter officially and I am here specifically to teach you how to love it this year and every year from here on out.
If there is a holiday I look forward to every year it is Winter Solstice. I have a complicated relationship with winter as a northerner. I at one point craved it, returned to it, and then in my 20’s ran away from it once again. Winter is the season of returning to the light. A Season of rest, rebuilding, and focus inward but it doesn’t have to be cold, hard, or isolating is what I learned and the best way to rest, heal, and enjoy this season involves the exact opposite of what I thought winter once felt like to me.
As a child, my dad would always say to me, “There is never bad weather just poor clothing choices.” Mainly this referred to the desire to wear a cute skirt to High School with heels (can imagine that on me now?!). I quickly learned the sooner I embraced the reality of winter and the cold the better. I leaned into thick leggings with dresses and boots and thick socks. I got coats that made me feel good and I enjoyed wearing them. I leaned into the season rather than fighting it.
This continued to affect everything else the older I got the more time I spent in winter. I learned that the reason we burn fires in winter isn’t just to keep us warm or cook food, but it brings us together too. Just like animals who burrow together to stay warm, we as humans do the same, or rather should. Winter is best done in the community. On snow days, parents gather together to hang out while the kids play in the snow. We enjoy a bowl of simple slow-cooked soup and a warm cup of tea with those we are closest to. We meet to hike, snowshoe, or xc ski together and then gather to eat and warm up around a fire. The contrast of cold and heat connect us more than they divide us and if anything I feel winter is one of the times in the north we spend the most time with friends and loved ones. Yes, the roads can keep us far, but getting to know neighbors or people you can walk to even if the roads are bad makes the darker days of winter feel far brother.
Winter is the balance we need to the fullness and abundance of summer so we both can revive from it and know its value.
Winter gets a bad rap in our modern world. I struggle with it because winter has given me resilience and strength that I believe has brought me through some of the darker times of life thus far and will help me face the times of loss and grief that will lie ahead in life as well as loved ones will age and reach their own times. It has taught me how to cook for myself when I need healing and when I need comfort. It has taught me how to trust my needs and intuitions whether it be from skiing pathless days in the fresh snow or simply feeling too cold and needing to get home. Winter is the balance we need to the fullness and abundance of summer so we both can revive from it and know its value.
Now, granted I was born in northern Michigan in the middle of January when winter is strong, steady, and unforgiving. I believe this gives me a unique comfort with this season, but I think it also gives me the ability to teach just how to at least find it tolerable to those who see it is simply something to endure. After all, winter is the season that upon my return to Northern Michigan after a stint on the Southern East Coast, started my obsession with studying and understanding the seasonal rhythms. I was living at the end of Old Missions Peninsula where very few people live year-round. The roads are treacherous at times from the wind and to get to town to just have a casual dinner could feel like a fete. After living 5 minutes from a Trader Joe’s to then being 20 minutes to just a gas station grocery store it was a realignment to reality, to say the least. I learned to hear myself better and to find comfort in the slowness. I had to or else I would have gone insane. I found beauty in the snow falling and a fire roaring. I found sustenance can exist by slowly cooking even the saddest veggies in the back of your fridge crisper. I discovered that winter brings us closest to the edge of our animal parts which we can tend to lose comfort with but this is a gift because it makes us feel more connected to nature. This only results in comfort with what we already have and makes us realize we need far less in life than the world tells us. I learned a sense of resilience and have now continued to watch it come to my children as well when we go on winter walks and the snow comes in heavy and cold but we still have 20 minutes to get home. We learn to handle it together as a family. We find comfort in walking in the snow in the dark and see its gift.
Maybe this is a bit rambly today and it most likely will be since my brain is at the end of mustering much more than this coffee-driven and snow-falling thought about winter, but if there is anything that sprung me to sit here at my computer it was that I desire for us to find a collective beauty to this season ahead of us.
I passionately ask you to read the rest of the newsletter to gather a few things that may bring joy to this season. I also share a few ways I suggest celebrating Winter Solstice this weekend. Marking seasons, helps us reflect on life, and track our growth and what is changing in us and the world. As a result, it can bring a sense of grounding, intention, and contentment into our lives that at times can be lost in the muddle of the world we live in.
For me, winter is a season of longing, resting, dreaming, and gathering. It is a time to listen deeply and pursue new things we don’t have time for in the bustle of other seasons. I spend all year working out simply to be strong enough to ski the way I want to. I think about the first snow like many think about a beach vacation. I find it beautiful, life-giving, insulating, and comforting. In a world where the land is warming all around us winter’s feel the most precious to me and I know that from living further south what a year without a good hard winter feels like. Things continue on marching without an abrupt ask for us to slow our pace because you don’t have to put on snow gear to just walk outside. You don’t have to shift things in your mudroom that much. I like these shifts. It tells me that we still have a hold on the climate a little bit longer. Not only that, I can feel like a kid again. I can get the joy of a rip down a perfectly groomed ski hill like I did when I was 7 and feel the same. Winter I believe keeps me young at heart, but it takes choosing it, working for it, and intentionally pursuing it as a valuable thing in life. I have and every year winter only becomes more of a gift than the year before.
So though, Christmas is just a few days away, I write to you about the beginning of winter as my gift to you to remember that the season ahead isn’t meant to be endured just as we shouldn’t feel that in life either. Every season in nature or life no matter it’s challenge should always bring growth, opportunity, and heightened awareness of self. Note I am not asking you to love this season. No, I wouldn’t think of it, but if I can bring you closer to nature and close to saying anything relatively in the vein of “winter wasn’t as bad as last year for me.” Then I will have succeeded.
Below in the email you will find a few things:
5 Ways to shift daily routines for winter to make the season even better
How to Celebrate Winter Solstice
My Playlists for Winter and Holiday Celebrations
Things I am thinking about
PAID SUBSCRIBERS: Your Updated Guide to Winter is also available in the Member Space for you as well.
Happy Winter Solstice (tomorrow) my friends. May you find new ways to use this season to heal, reflect, hear yourself, and build a little more intention.
Learn More about Winter’s Importance.
Deep Rest: How Winter Supports Healing and Renewal:
My dear friend Dr. Michele Seguin lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as an MD focused on Family and Lifestyle Medicine. She has a lovely newsletter on Substack, but this one aligned well today with this email so I wanted to send it along for additional reading.
5 Ways to Make Winter Enjoyable
A few little bits from my notebook over the week and beyond. Little bits of essays and random thoughts that seep into the margins over the weeks.
Find a Way to Get Warm:
You don’t have to have a Sauna to make your warm from the inside out, though I do highly suggest getting one or getting access to one. If you cannot. No worries, a good hot shower or bath, wearing warm slippers, and more will help with the challenges of feeling warm.Gathering Consistently:
Making it a priority with friends to gather on a consistent basis will help you immensely in this season. We have a monthly group we gather for soup, bread, and cozy vibes. It’s low key, come as you are, and kids welcome of course. It’s a good time and leaves us all feeling warm and nourished.Getting Outside:
A daily walk will do a lot for your mood, but if you can pick up a sport as well then you will find winter will be your favorite season of all. We are skiers and snowboarders, but we ice skate and snowshoe as well. All the winter sports for our family because it makes us all happier in the winter.Dress Accordingly:
As my dad mentioned or rather the Scandivians did first, dress for the season. Having a pair or two of shoes you enjoy in the winter and layer properly enjoy. Most of my friends have a true collection of coats as well because you spend most of life in the north in one other than from June to September which isn’t always promised to be warm either.Dream and Make New Hobbies:
I sew, paint, and get creative in the winter. I also will pursue new hobbies of all kinds and I do far more reading. Get some activities on your list so you can fill the days with them. Things that sort of get missed other times of years. This is the time to do it and it will make winter extra fulfilling.
I offer more tips for Paid Subscribers in the Winter Seasonal Guide that is available once you up your subscription.
Playlists for the Season Ahead
I have had this playlist for a long time, but it still is wonderful. I am always adding songs to it every year. Enjoy! You can find it on Spotify here.
This one is my annual winter list I make every year. It was just started so if you save it you will continue to get updates to it every few days as I add to it. I listen to a lot of music :) Get the link here on Spotify.
How To Celebrate Winter Solstice
I don’t want to give a list this time of year, but I wanted to just give a couple quick and easy things to mark the day. One or two of these things would be the perfect thing to just simply begin the tradition.
A walk at dusk with lanterns. They could be handmade or just ones you have at home. This marks the end of the shortest days and welcomes the light back.
Read The Shortest Day. It is also on youtube if you don’t have the book.
Have dinner with no lights but just candles.
Have a bon fire and toss in things you wish to not carry back to the light.
Sing songs around a bon fire
Make a simple Citrus cake or yule cake to celebrate the light and warmth of it
These are just a few really simple things. We try to do a few of them ourselves to make the occassion as a family.
On my mind this week
September is a new vibe, so here are some things I am enjoying and thinking about right now.
Indigenous Knowledges Podcast From The Leelanau Conservancy:
This is an incredible way for our local conservancy to end the year. I am a member of a collective of young ambassadors for the Leelanau Conservancy and it makes me incredible proud to be one of them because of projects and pursuits such as this podcast. This sort of knowledge is essential to bridge the gap of culture, land, and healing our planet. I have loved the first 2 episodes thus far and feel so thankful to have this available for my work with clients as well who wish to grow their knowledge of their land. Please listen if you come to this area and enjoy it as much as we all do. It is more than just pretty views and a getaway. It’s history is rich and important.Fresh Snow:
Here is to a few days at least of getting in the first turns of the season! I cannot wait but I will be in the cold of my parents’ garage tuning my skis up probably tomorrow night with one too many cold to almost icy beers. Just the way I love this time of year.A Coat I Love:
I am going to keep sharing occassional things to keep you cozy this winter. As always my selections come with the suggestion to find second hand if you can, but if not I suggest brands that are thinking about the planet.
I have 5 coats from Patagonia. All have different purposes and times of year they are used. I could have less, but the reason I have them is because they last and last. One I have had for 12 years and another 8 years for instance and none of them have yet to need a repair. I swear by them! One of those coats is this one and it is newer but I needed a shorter parker for school runs and to layer for skiing on SUPER cold days as well. So far I am loving it as it is warm, sleek, and regulates temperature well.Caramalized Fennel:
I love almost every veggie but I think in the winter the one veggie I have come to love the most is hands down fennel. The bulb in particular. I have gotten into carmalizing it and just eating it with anything and everything! In fact, I just did this and frozen a bunch of it so I can enjoy it once the bulbs aren’t locally available anymore.Breaking up with Social Media in 2025
It’s you not me Instagram. Yeah, I think I am debating this always, but 2025 may be the year I walk away in a new way than ever before. The ads. The algorithm. The consumerism. The lack of sustenance. It feels empty in more ways than ever before. I read a lot on Substack about people doing this, but I am working through why I don’t just let go fully. I don’t enjoy it very much. I actually have been spending a lot more time on Pinterest because I love getting ideas and curating things if I am going to scroll. I also find it far less addictive and comparative. I had some moments this holiday season that left me feeling really gross and I think it’s time to realize social media is a toxic relationship I am ready to let go of.Looking at a New Year:
I will do a whole newsletter but I really am looking towards 2025 in a way I haven’t looked at years prior. I have spent the last 5 years working intensely on myself. I walked away from an influencer career. I rewrote my career. I pursued new parts of myself. I have been in therapy for 3 years and done some intense healing with EMDR and I am not the person I once was in massive ways. I am proud of it and it feels good to head towards 38 with this strength in my footing. I see my next year of life as something about owning all the work I have done, not being scared of showing the world these parts of who I am, and about just being my weird and cool self I have come to love. I also plan to focus on the relationships and communities in life that really feed me and bring me joy. I have a lot I am reflecting on as I end this year and I am looking forward to discussing it over the next month. For now though I am noting all the gratitudes, growths, big successes (and why i call them so), and the things I want to continue carrying with me and growing towards.
If you want to get the Seasonal Winter Guide, this is the time of year to grab that 20% as I will not offer it again till next season. Enjoy my friends and have a great rest of your year! See you in 2025.