How to Pay Attention This Week

The tension between the slowness of winter and the get up and go culture of the world are in tension, this leaves space for us to pay attention this week

Mental sketches from my walk in the snow in this morning.

The list of projects on my table right now is quite large. Though winter is a quiet time of year in many ways, it is also a time of planning, learning, and dreaming. I love the layers of ideas that are scattered over my table in my office. The seed catalogs are coming in, and I feel I am at the peak of joy as the snow falls and coats the landscape around me like a fresh palette to paint my dreams upon.

As the projects take shape with sketching and lists, I find it more important than ever to protect my dreamy nature in January. When I clutter it with other things from the world, I cannot conceptualize the next idea clearly. I have to pull harder to bring my thoughts together, but when I clear the room for only the necessary in my head, there is a flow of creativity that doesn’t just come easily but can almost be too much to handle.

This means I am looking at all the ways the world pulls at me. All the meetings I could take. All the social things that are an option. All the tasks that could fill my days. All the ways the world may suggest I should be. Instead, I am sitting back and asking, how can I do the least extra as possible?

We forget that when January rolls around, winter is also here. This season requires a lot of us. It requires us to listen to our bodies, whether we are handling getting sick or we are just trying to handle the cold. Everything is a heavy task on our bodies this time of year, but if we take notes on what we should be eating right now (low and slow), the way the days are still dark early (more rest is required), and we observe the demand of the added tasks in the cold (warming the car up, putting on extra layers, shoveling snow, scraping the ice away, etc) we can see just how we are intended actually to begin a year. Spring is for beginning things. This is our time to be slow and meander our way back to rising.

So, we must pay attention to how the land around us reminds us to slow down and how we feel pulled by the modern world of work and social demands. Then we must ask, how can we settle deeper into what our body is asking for because I can bet it lends to the slower than the world of restrictions and resolutions.

This week is a practice in this very thing as it is the first truly full week of being out of the haze of holidays and being in winter. The two can feel they grind on one another, but if we listen closely enough, we can find ways to keep our days slow, calm, protected, and still meet what the modern world requires.

Learn more on how and why to do this below.

---

The Garden Planning Intensive dates have been posted for all Paid Subscribers. This event series goes live in February, so now is a great time to become a subscriber for as little as $5 a month in order to gain access.

All Paid Subscribers head to the Member Space today to get access to the dates and subjects each event will cover along with the assignments to keep you on track.