Time To Stir A Little From My Winter Slumber
The February Thaw means it’s time to wake up a bit from my winter slumber. I have so been enjoying a deep hibernation, but if my daffodils can make an effort, so can I. I am comforting myself with the fact that there will be many more cold and snowy days before spring truly settles into the land. These higher temperatures and the sight of the grass marks the first shift toward a new season, the second being when we change the clocks in a few weeks.
I am finding myself washing windows, getting fresh air in the house, starting onion, cabbage, broccoli, and pepper seeds indoors, building trellises in the garden and layering a new compost pile.
The birds dance to this rhythm of late winter moving into early spring really well. On these first warm days they begin to sing their songs that we have not heard in months. But when the cold returns, they sit silently, feathers all puffed up, visiting the feeders for some seed here and there to keep warm, dreaming of spring, probably.
I think that’s how I want to move through this season, too. The warm days used outside working on projects, the cold days spent inside prepping food. No chance of ushering in spring too soon or grumbling about winter’s lingering if we move naturally with the rhythm of the weather. A batch of buns innocently overproofing in my kitchen this week while my toddler and I were running around outside was a reminder to me that I really should use what’s left of winter to stock the freezer with easy preps for those long spring days spent outdoors. Who can bother with what’s for dinner when peas need to be sown?
I often visit “Things Needful” from the Valley of Vision prayer book this time of year, for these very-fitting late winter lines:
Blow away the ashes of unbelief by thy Spirit’s breath
and give me light, fire, and warmth of love.
I need spiritual comforts
that are gentle, peaceful, mild, refreshing,
that will melt me into conscious lowliness before thee,
that will make me feel and rest in thee as my All.
Fill the garden of my soul with the wind of love,
that the scents of the Christian life may be wafted to others;
then come and gather fruits to thy glory.
So shall I fulfil the great end of my being —
to glorify thee and be a blessing to men.
May the rest of your winter too be filled with mild, peaceful comforts of both body and soul. Blessing to thee!
—Kaetlyn