A Slow and Gentle January

Entering the new year at your own pace.

January is always full of resolutions and ‘new year, new you’ talk. Everywhere I look, people are offering templates for goal-setting, planning, and setting out steps to accomplish the new health plan, self-care routine, career achievement or creative dream. If that’s your thing, I applaud you. I am a ‘make it happen’ person. I know that if we don’t make plans and actually follow through on them, then nothing gets done. And that is incredibly frustrating.

But making new plans because it’s January has never seemed like a good fit for me. Perhaps it’s because the new calendar year is out of line with the new school year, which defined my life for a long time. Perhaps it’s because new starts feel more aligned to spring, when nature is awakening to newness too.

If spring were to come straight after Christmas, I would be glad. Once the decorations and lights are put away and the season is over I feel done with the cold and the dark. I would be happy if the weather warmed up quickly and the daylight lasted much longer. But that isn’t the way the world works. It’s likely to get colder before we feel much of the sun’s heat again, and although the shortest day of the year is past, the increase in light is almost imperceptible. I’m still closing my curtains against the dark in the late afternoon.

That doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Signs of new life are gently stirring. We have plans that are in their infancy, like the bulbs in our planters that are just beginning to peek their tender green shoots above the soil.

Photo by Roman Datsiuk on Unsplash

But for now, it’s still winter and I need to be present to the season I’m in. A bold and brassy start to the new year doesn’t work for me. I still need the comfort and warmth of good books and blankets on cold, dark evenings. I’m still embracing early nights and candlelight. The new year finds me slipping back into the comfortable routines begun in autumn of yoga classes, orchestra playing and deepening friendships. It finds me with the desire to take my time savouring thoughts and ideas, writing only when I have something worthwhile to say.

So I’m going slowly and gently into January. I’m learning patience and trust. I’m breathing in peace and kindness so I can offer a non-anxious presence to others. I’m looking for ways to nurture my body and soul. I’m not rushing ahead, or allowing someone else’s sense of urgency to determine my pace. I want to keep in step with the Holy Spirit, who leads me into love, joy and peace, and who will walk with me through whatever unfolds in the year ahead.