WINTER KEEPING

Winter is a time for silent thoughts and hushed prayers. It is meant for hibernation. Even if you (like I) live where the weather is mild, don't rush. Take quiet care. Relax your mind and body. 

  
Winter is meant for contemplation. Not to do but to undo. Let the pot cook the supper; let the leaves protect the shoots; let the halo moon light the night and the chill air clear the sight.  

As the wilderness tucks in, so should we.

Midwinter doldrums can't survive the Peace on Earth that comes at Christmastide and stays for the year. Winter blues disappear when we embrace the annual rhythm of doing less and being more. 

So welcome the pause, love the long nights, fill your heart not your calendar. Bathe the children, light the candles, climb from a fragrant hot tub into the softest of bedclothes. Settle all under magic duvets where our body temperatures never dip below 98.6ᐤ. This is winter keeping.  

The riot of Spring will come soon enough.   

   
Nina Naomi

 

A CHORE-FREE ZONE

Creating a chore-free zone--or inhabiting one--is not my idea.  A UK magazine I enjoy (www.thesimplethings.com)  has a monthly series on what makes a house a home.  One month the feature was about the joy of a garden shed.  The writer said that because the shed is isolated from the rest of the house it becomes a chore-free zone.  She said, "Time spent in the shed never feels wasted." Now I don't have a garden shed, but the idea of a chore-free zone where I could putter, day-dream, let the mess accumulate, and do only those tasks that absorb and give pleasure spoke to me straight off.  One Saturday I set out to create one.  

First I thought I would take a walk. Then I might get some ideas. I set out for the mossy path in our woods.  

I might as well take my rake, I decided.  There were sure to be leaves to rake off the moss and a few border stones to replace.  I walked and raked and neatened the path for almost an hour before I realized I better turn around and head back if I was ever to create a chore-free zone. 

When I got home I made a cup of tea and took it into the storage room off our kitchen.  This would be a quiet place where I could think about a chore-free zone.  The grandchildren love the storage room.  It is cluttered with boxes, old photos, toys and games, trophies from TaeKwonDo,  school projects, a vintage trunk filled with who knows what, spare chairs. . . in all a fine place to play or poke around. The Christmas decorations were already put back neatly on the highest shelves, but I couldn't resist straightening a stack of heavy old albums.  I opened the one that holds family photos of the farm-house-next-to-the-church-next-to-the-cemetary where we lived when our children were toddlers.  What memories! Soon almost another hour had gone by and I was no closer to my goal of a chore-free-zone. 

Maybe outdoors was a better place to think after all.  I may not have a shed but I have a potting bench.  I  rearranged the sea shells, watered everything, set out a flat of pansies.  The time flew by.  

Still without a chore-free zone idea and now quite dirty. I might as well check on my hanging garden.  Its just some skinny old dead cedar trunks found lying about in the woods that I have propped onto a few nails in larger shade trees.  A good wind always sends something to the ground.  But it was all intact.

Might as well take a rest on a chaise lounge.  A friend helped us create an outdoor room on some decking.  The morning was gone and I had thoroughly enjoyed it.  I began wondering whether I didn't have enough chore-free zones already.