How to Pay Attention This Week

The low sun. The short days. The long nights. Learning to pay attention to the dark is now our very present demand.

*** I will be taking a break next week and will return with How to Pay Attention on Janaury 1st ***

I love to think about the times of the year like I do the clock of our day. There is no easier time to correlate in the year to the clock than the weeks around the Winter Solstice. The days have a tendency to feel like they have just begun when the sun sets. This feels in stark contrast to our days in the summer when we feel it is hard to find any space away from the sun. This is why I always think of Winter Solstice as the year's midnight, just as I think of Summer Solstice as the noon of the year.

I love seeing the seasons this way because I can more easily reflect directly on what I do at those times during the day. It makes the seasons feel easier to understand, reflect on, and realize what I should expect of myself and the world around me.

So, as the darkness settles in as my companion now, I am asking and looking at my world and saying, how do I spend that time of the night between 12 - 4 AM? This gives me a perspective on what to do with these days I find myself in. It also gives me a way to find ease with the expectations of this time. So, I make a list of what the darkness offers us every evening at the height of the darkest point in our day. I sleep. I cuddle. I sink below the covers. It is colder, and I find ways to stay warm. The fire is a part of my rhythm as well, whether it be in the fireplace or in a candle I keep on the table or in the kitchen these days to soften the night’s darkness.

Each day, when we arrive at midnight, we no longer are moving away from the light. Rather, we are returning. Every moment draws us back to the light instead of away from it, unlike when we were in the days of Autumn. So, as we slumber, we are resting our minds, bodies, and souls to prepare for the morning. Most importantly, we spend that time in a state of dreaming and processing life, desires, wants, and the subconscious things that daylight never gives space for. We work through ideas and inspiration, past experiences, and more in the haze of our sleepy minds.

Seeing this upcoming season in the same way as we see those hours each day helps me also see that I never am angsty with those hours at night. If anything, I love them for the deep rest and healing they bring to me, so when the sun rises, I am ready to do everything my dream time has inspired me to do. So, I take the same feelings into winter. I don’t hold angst with how they force me inward, closer to the stillness, or even the darkness they bring. These things are expected. It’s my job to make peace with them.

I also think about how those dark hours also bring those middle-of-the-night thoughts that are looser, dream-like, and, most importantly, rooted to my deepest longings and ideas. Something no other time of day can give to me.

The darkness offers us a connection to this state of self, and by paying attention to the way the darkness gives us a sense of rest and space to dream, we may find ourselves more deeply enjoying this season of rising back to the light just as we do each night.

By looking at the darkness as an opportunity to connect with something in us that is different than we can in the light of the summer days, we can see this upcoming season with new eyes.

We now descend into the shortest day, but when we awake the next day, every day from then on just gains more light once again. So, now is the time to connect and learn to find comfort in the dark, both in nature and ourselves.

Read more about how to pay attention this season by becoming a paid subscriber for only $5 a month (even less if you subscribe for the year). You can also access events and guides for each season.

The Winter Guide will be released next week and we will be doing a Garden Planning Intensive in February. All are part of your subscription.