It's often easy to feel like winter is a write-off. It's dark and cold. The holidays are overly-consumerist or overly religious or overly complicated. It can feel like there's no middle ground between "it's the most wonderful time of the year" and seasonal depression.

And yet. I think it's worth considering what gifts winter might have for each of us. We all need different things in different seasons. What are the ways that winter might be able to care for you? What practices or mindset shifts might help you make the most of the dark? 

As a poet at heart, metaphors are my lifeblood. I love the many different winter and holiday stories and symbols we find in traditions all over the world. I love the active practice of hope that decorating or singing together or lighting a candle can be. I love the promise of the return of the light, while knowing that the dark, too, is essential to our well-being. 

Do I love every rainy day and dark morning? No, but I do love the story winter is telling me about rest and patient waiting, about all the unseen things that happen in the dark so that the earth can bloom again in a few short months. 

What story do you want winter to tell? What gifts might winter have to offer you?