In flow with the seasons

February 17, 2025 • 526 words • 1.7 Harry Potter pages HP Series has 1,084,170 words across 3407 pages, 318 words per page (reference). • 3 mins

I have never liked the winter. Every year I would stubbornly repeat winter was my least favourite season of the year. I never got the point of it. Being raised under warmer and bluer skies, the London weather always felt like a drag. And I have had to endure it for the last 9 years. February was the worst. Most other winter months have something that made them go faster. December and its festivities and January being basically the year’s warm-up with its fervent excitement for change yet soon to fail over-ambitious resolutions. But February, maybe it’s simply unlucky to be the last one, I always wanted it to get out of the way and leave room for Spring.

I’ve never liked the cold, I need sunshine, perhaps as much as plants do. And perhaps there is one of my big realisations for 2025. I never was in sync with the seasons, I lived like it was always the same one - same habits, same routines, same diet while everything around me was constantly changing. In the cold months of winter, I would reluctantly go out into the cold to do whatever I had to. I would go to bed as late as I would in the summer. I would wake up tired and push through the day with volatile energy, fueled by caffeine and irregular eating patterns.

At the start of 2025, one of my resolutions was to be more in touch with nature. I mean this in a practical way. Humans, to me, are part of the ecosystem as much as plants, animals or the air we breathe but we seem to be in denial of this, I certainly was. Birds migrate, bears hibernate and leaves fall. The natural world retreats in these cold months, why would we not change too?

This year was going to be different. My current workload is very high, I recently moved to a new house and it’s cold out there. I haven’t really wanted to leave the house much. Some friends who are more attuned to the British weather think this a classic case of SAD. And they might be right. But the thing is, this year is the first time I accept that it’s ok to not want to leave the house when it’s cold and dark outside. That it’s ok to rest, to use this season for some emotional recycling, to ground myself in quality sleep, cooking hearty meals, working on the things I am currently working on which do require a lot of sitting down in the quiet. Winter reminds me that it’s ok for things to take time, it’s ok to go slowly. The sun will inevitably come back, the warm long days, going out for hours on end, enjoying endless hours chatting & laughing with friends. For now, I rest.

The winter is an abundantly generous season and I had never appreciated its power and what embracing it could mean. To anyone reading, you might already know this but if you don’t, I hope you can enjoy the rest of the season to rest and get ready for the sunny glorious days ahead.