I recently asked here on Substack whether we’re doing resolutions this year, and many of you shared that you don’t really mark the new year until spring. That you wait. That you let the earth lead.
I loved that.
It makes sense, after all. Why celebrate “new” while the world outside our windows is still in the middle of its own quiet? Trees resting. Soil holding its breath. Energy conserved. There’s something deeply reasonable about letting the calendar turn without demanding more of ourselves when the landscape is still slumbering, when the air is sharp, the days are short, and winter is doing exactly what winter is meant to do.
I’ll wait for the songbirds to come back from the south and sing their little motivational anthems, thank you very much.
And still, being human also means living within shared rhythms and cultural moments, even when we don’t fully subscribe to them. So while I’m not setting resolutions or forcing a reinvention before I’m ready, I do find something useful in the id…
