A Time for Dreaming Dreams
Considering What’s Next
Our Winter Break and Christmas Season have looked different this year. I intentionally kept my hands open to allow space for what was, without trying to hold onto what this season has been. It felt like a gift to be present in each day and enjoy the moments as they came.
Our household is in an extended season of transition. It’s not a clearly defined transition, like a move, but it’s a transition nonetheless. We are in the season of launching emerging adults. Our boys are emerging into adulthood, taking on new challenges and figuring out who they want to become as contributors to this world. As parents, we are transitioning from a leadership role into a support role for our boys, and this adjustment finds us reimaginging our rhythms and routines.
Winter—with its trees bare—has always extended an invitation to rest. And yet this year it seems to also offer space to dream and imagine what is to come in the next season. When nature is stripped bare, we can see the support system, the quality or lack thereof, of the soil. Transitions, while not easy, provide an opportunity for us to reflect on the core of who we are becoming and consider the steps we need to take moving forward.
To be clear, I do not imagine that simply because we allow space for dreaming and considering what’s next, that dramatic changes will be required of us. We could look out at the landscape and discover only a few weeds need pulling, but otherwise we are content with the garden that will bloom in Spring. And yet, we may find ourselves imagining a reworking of our garden, with some plants remaining while others need to be replaced.
As someone who is risk-averse, dreaming can feel dangerous. What if I find myself with an impossible dream, a dream that never comes true? What if a new dream asks me to leave behind something that feels safe, something I have loved, or an identity I have formed? And yet, what if I don’t dare to dream? What possibilities might I miss out on?
Might we be brave enough to allow ourselves space to dream, to reconsider, to reimagine what could be?
Pause to Consider:
Rhymes and routines have always been my friends, and I can easily become stagnant; after all, sameness feels safe. And yet, I have discovered that what feels safe does not always lead to living our best life or becoming the best version of ourselves.
As I consider nature’s rhythms, I see certain cycles repeating: the sun setting and rising each day without fail. Yet, while there is a rhythm to sunsets and sunrises, they never look exactly the same. A different work of art is painted in the sky each morning and night, teaching me to hold my rhythms and routines with that same idea: always there, but not always looking exactly the same day in and day out.
Winter is extending its invitation to lighten your load and rest.
AND
Winter is providing space to dare to dream new dreams and consider what might come next.
In this Season:
What are you holding onto that you might need to let go of?
What type of rest are you in need of this winter? Physical? Emotional? Spiritual?
AND
What dreams will you dare to dream?
What new possibilities for what comes next might you consider?
While I wish we could sit with coffee or tea and ponder all these things together, that isn’t always possible. But I’d still love to connect and hear your thoughts.
A Prayer:
May we accept Winter’s invitation to lighten our load and rest.
May we embrace a flexible rhythm of rest that we can carry from this season into the next.
May we be brave enough to create space to dream new dreams.
May we prepare our hearts for new possibilities as we consider what lies ahead.
A Word to Ponder: Koselig
While I have frequently claimed Winter to be a season that invites us to rest, learning about the Norwegian word “Koselig” has inspired me to see Winter’s rest as so much more than just taking naps. We hear the word ‘rest’ and easily define it as ceasing activities, even something that requires solitude. But perhaps we have limited rest and failed to understand its capacity to be so much more than mere inaction.
Koselig, the Norwegian version of Hygge, extends beyond a cozy environment to foster a sense of community. Instead of allowing the cold, dark days of winter to drive them indoors, Koselig in Norway means hanging outdoor lights, building fires, and laying blankets out in outdoor seating areas, where they continue to gather. And, when they move indoors, koselig is the feeling created in the home, including inviting people in, lighting candles, having a warm fire, and, of course, food is essential, and in Norway, likely homemade.
While Winter draws us inward, inviting us to rest, Koselig invites us to consider the relational aspect of rest and reminds us that there is also room for celebration and community in a restful way. The more I learn about the practice of Koselig, the more I see it as a mindset rather than a physical action or inaction. A mindset that first begins in our hearts and our homes, then flows out from there.
A Book for the Season: Liturgies for Resisting Empire by Kat Armas
The book Liturgies for Resisting Empire by Kat Armas might not seem like your typical Advent reading. Yet, that’s the season I read it, and it seemed to fit perfectly with the Season of Advent, while also extending an invitation beyond that.
Kat invites us to consider and reconsider religious mindsets and traditions that are more rooted in tradition than in scripture. She provides space to sit with holy discomfort and grapple with uncertainty, while inspiring us to consider how we might be light when everything around us feels dark.
“We are here to listen, to learn, and to act with compassion and love.” Kat Armas
A Gift for You: A few years ago, I spent some time reflecting on Rhythms of Rest, and during that time, I developed An Invitation to Embrace Restorative Rhythms: Five days of Reflections on Rest. If you are looking to consider how rest might look in this particular Winter Season, click here for a free resource on Rest.
A Quote to Consider:
“In a world that demands we produce, consume, and repeat, we choose to pause.
To breathe. To Listen. To remember that we were not made for exhaustion, but for embodiment, wonder, and rest.”
Kat Armas