Hello babblers! I was supposed to record my podcast on aging this week but poor planning meant that I would have to get on video and speak for two hours (how long I typically record for) while in my luteal phase and that just wasn’t happening this week. Also, I have been struck lately by how much I’m enjoying winter and reveling in the snow. That combined with being inundated with “rebrand for 2026 with me” and “new year new me” content on social media reminded me how much I hate resolutions and how as a society we completely ignore what it means to truly live with the seasons. Which lead me here….

*play me*

There’s a particular slumber associated with winter that I find most people abhor. I too used to complain of the cold, the sun setting at 4pm, and wondered how long this would drag on. Every new year I was elated to make vision boards and set resolutions, a promise that I could start anew and that when the clock struck midnight all that held me back would be forgotten. Yet it never stuck. Constantly beating myself up, hating that I couldn’t stick to the resolutions I’d set. Or wondering why by the fall my vision boards remained glued to cardboard and had not materialized in physical form. I watch us every year repeat the same cycle, “new year new me!” As if an arbitrary date set by the Gregorian calendar to uphold a patriarchal religion over 400 years ago¹ is the key to a new life. And the reality is, it’s not.

The season of winter lasts from the Winter Solstice (this year December 21st) to the Spring Equinox (March 20th)². Did you realize that as I type this, it’s not even winter yet? While most animals have begun hibernation and depending on where you live the snow has started to fall, not until the longest night can winter truly begin. A few years ago I started to live my life in accordance with the seasons and the phases of the moon. Allowing nature to guide me instead of our patriarchal calendar. Though I do think it’s important to acknowledge modern years and months. While time is a construct, as we evolve so can the tools that guide us and it is helpful to organize our lives around a 24 hour day or 30-31 day time period. Yearly quarters are great to track goals, habits, progress. And 12 months is certainly a easy way to define and archive our time on earth. But as much as we try to convince ourselves otherwise, we are animals. And when you look around the birds and squirrels and bears and dear do not begin anew on January 1st. They hibernate through winter. Stags shed there antlers to begin fresh in the spring. Birds not meant to last in the cold fly south to wait it out. Wolves mate in the late winter to birth new life in spring. If all around you is telling you to rest, why not lie down?

While I’ve been opting to build my life around the seasons, this is the first year I may actually enjoy winter. No not enjoy, it’s the first time I’m wonder-struck. Last season I did enjoy it and it was the first time I wasn’t in a rush for it to end. Around February is when everyone begins to get antsy. “How much longer will it be so cold?” “I just want the sun to set at 8pm again” “I can’t wait for summer” they all exclaimed. Yet, like never before I was perfectly content to sit in the stillness. To wait my turn to bloom. And though it’s not technically winter yet, where I live we’ve been blessed with tons of snow already. Never before have I truly seen it’s beauty. The stillness of winter, the quiet of the forest, watching the lake and streams ice over knowing there’s still a whole world underneath is enchanting. Why would anyone wish this away I wonder? Why can we not sit in the silence? Why must we always push and push and push for more? Winter isn’t depressing when you accept it’s the time of solitude and don’t punish yourself for sitting inside instead of being consumed by events and obligations and socializing, all themes of summer. It’s not a time to fight the dreamy world of Pisces that marks the end of the season, it’s the time to indulge. Winter isn’t the time to punish yourself for eating more at holiday events, does the squirrel restrict itself from nuts? How will you stay warm?

It’s no wonder only 9% of people who make resolutions actually keep them.³ We’ve been brainwashed that the dead of the winter is the time to start anew, to reinvent ourselves, when it’s truly the opposite. The “new year” takes place only a a week or two into the season meant for rest, reflection, and dreaming. Winter is the time to vision board sure, but action… I’d argue not. (Here’s a post from last year about the art of vision boards if you’re needing inspiration and a break from the typical curated vision board nonsense content: https://babblings.net/the-art-of-vision-boards/) Now is the time to envision new paths to embark on and decide which seeds to plant in spring, that will bloom through summer, and that which we can harvest in the fall. So no I don’t hate the idea of bettering yourself through resolutions, I hate the pressure society has placed on us to do so when all the world is telling us it’s not yet time. I hate the indoctrination that keeps us in theses loops, starting over and failing and starting over and failing and again and again, never reaching our full potential because we’re unknowingly working against ourselves and the laws of nature. You want to manifest a million dollars in 2026, but have you ever introduced yourselves to the trees? Have you taken the time to observe mother nature’s patterns? Have you asked mother ocean to help you wash away what’s holding you back? There is more to life than what these snake oil salesmen want you to buy. And you can start by enjoying everyone’s least favorite season.

xoxo,

Ali Ann

---

NOTES