Productive Hibernation

 

Apparently yesterday was ‘Blue Monday’; the day when many people experience a significant post-Christmas depressive slump. I’m not surprised. January can be a tough month in the northern hemisphere, a time when the cold and damp seeps into the bones and the joys of Spring still feel a long way off. It deprives us of vitality and makes us want to curl up and hibernate.

I guess that many of us would secretly like to hibernate and I, for one, am all in favour. The hedgehogs under my wood pile have it right, don’t they. They understand the wisdom of conserving energy in this season and strengthening themselves for warmer days, as indeed do the trees. It’s only you and I who have a tendency to try to keep on living life at our usual pace, regardless of what nature might be trying to teach us.

As a creative writer, I need seasons of protected slowness; time to rest, regroup, be still with God and discern how the Spirit is leading me. So I’ve just arrived at my favourite retreat house to begin a long, quiet stay. I’ll be working on the final edits for my new book before it wings it’s way to a publisher. I won’t be sleeping deeply like my hedgehogs but it will nevertheless be a hibernation of sorts; I’ll be living at a quite different pace and hopefully it will be a productive hibernation.

Do please pray for me.

And if you value my writing and ministry please head over to this page and consider supporting me in other ways too.

Meanwhile, why not nurture your own inner hedgehog? Give yourself permission, if you can, to rest and relax a little more, especially if Monday (or any other day) felt a bit ‘blue” for you. You’ll bounce back much brighter in the Spring.