The Catholic Writers Guild

In general, I am not a fan of January. I live in New England where it is cold and lacks sunlight this time of year. Even with my full-spectrum lightbulbs permanently installed to help relieve the seasonal depression, it is always a struggle to have a positive outlook on life in the midst of winter.

I’ve been making my way through The Artist’s Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom by Christine Valters Painter (Sorin Books, 2011). In it, she reflects on respecting the seasonal rhythms of life and acknowledging the value of each season. We live in a world that expects us to be productive all of the time. As Painter states, “We may begin to believe that our worth is determined by how much we can produce.”

Yet, our life is made up of seasons, not only the four main seasons, but also the other ways our time is broken into sections: a day, a week, a month, a year, seven years (the time it takes for our body to completely regenerate all new cells), and a lifetime. Each section offers both times of productivity and times for rest and rejuvenation.

In nature, winter is a fallow time, necessary before spring can burst into bloom. So it is with our creative output as well. There will be times in life when we simply may not be able to create, for whatever reason. There is something to be said for working every day (and I do encourage writers to do that!), but if you aren’t right now, it doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress in your creative journey.We are always taking in experiences, adding to the wellspring from which to draw.

Times of rest, of reflection (whether chosen or forced by outward circumstances) are necessary. They give our minds and hearts a time to rejuvenate. Like nature, resting now, waiting for the sun to warm the earth and to break into bloom, we too will burst forth from our time of rest with fresh ideas and new stories to tell.