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January 2026: Stillness & Quiet

Grounding in time and place:

  • Day 1 of the calendar year / Week 2 of the Winter Solstice / Fredericton

Seasonal attributes:

  • Cold, quiet, inward

Celtic Wheel of the Year:

  • Stillness, gestation, and quiet endurance

Can we rest without disengaging?

We returned from a long drive yesterday and have a few days before the busy buzz of work, school, and sports schedules resume. The way that statutory holidays worked out this year means we have a few days of rest after traveling, which feels unusually peaceful and slow. The holiday cheer has been promptly packed away for another year, and now we hunker down for the rest of winter.

While in years past I would have been spending the day scheming some grandiose self-improvement plan, I am resisting the urge and instead embracing the slow quiet wintering that my body is craving. Rather than viewing January 1st as a time of renewal, improvement, and finally mastering it all, could we consider non-striving and rest as worthy goals? In other words, non-doing?

Even these gentler goals are challenging, after all, since it’s much more realistic/attainable/satisfying to focus on the present moment and one day at a time. This doesn’t mean we need to throw away all forms of planning and head towards apathy or disengagement, but it does require the recognition of the impermanence of things. Everything – our feelings, our bodies, other people – are in a state of constant change so the idea that we can (or should) “white-knuckle” or “hustle” towards a goal for an entire year seems to set us up for self-imposed disappointment.

I am trying to practice discernment on which aspirations actually serve me at this point in my life. It’s a time of year when we look at our credit card bills and the accumulation of new gadgets, toys, and clothes from Christmas and start to wonder “is this what I really want?”. Personally, I am yearning for the quiet solitude of the winter months ahead. A time of reflection and hibernation of sorts. Yet the movement from solitude to isolation can be insidious, so I must remain aware and connected to others.

Today everything is closed for New Year’s Day, and because it is so icy people seem to be staying in. These are my favourite kinds of days to go out for a walk with my dogs in the city. I am more likely to go out on a storm day than a warm summer day when the city is bustling. I love the quiet, slow pace. The smell of the cold, crisp air matched with the smell of wood burning in fireplaces. Strangely, I find it comforting when walking in the cold to imagine the cozy circumstances people may find themselves in inside their dwellings – perhaps a crackling fire, cup of steeped tea, the book they’ve been waiting to read, and a cat on the lap. My dog’s tail wagging quickens as we approach her buddy’s doorstep and I think she may be imagining what’s inside too.

This scene reminds me a bit of one of the plus sides of the COVID-19 pandemic. The slowing down and retreating had its challenges, for sure, but it also contained moments of healing. People took up skills that feel almost lost these days, such as mending and preserving. We realized how important human connection really is, even if we pride ourselves on self-sufficiency and so many spaces are dominated with individualistic worldviews. When the world paused, emissions reduced, air pollutants decreased, wildlife movement changed, and there were noticeable shifts in noise pollution.

Reflection & Practice

Where do you sense shifts—inside or outside—when you slow your pace for a moment, a day, a week, or even a season? What does the world around you reveal when human urgency eases, even briefly? Do any of these periods of pause feel accessible to you at this point in your life?

Stop and contemplate the fact that life exists without you having to do, think, or say anything. Just be part of this unbelievable web of life.

Accept. Let go.

Access a level of humility that will enable the realization that whatever it is you may be dwelling on or whatever aspiration you are holding tightly to, you can loosen the grip, even just a little. Have faith that life’s events will or will not unfold, exactly as intended (by whoever/whatever forces/being/s are the master planners at work – the universe let’s call it), without much (if any) effort needed on your part.

Life is bigger than our individual beliefs, thoughts, and actions, and that is such a relief to me personally. It doesn’t mean resorting to nihilism, especially when considering global events unfolding that do require us to engage and care deeply. It means that we can relieve ourselves from the constant striving and performative gestures that society demands of us, and to instead resource ourselves with periods of rest that enable the wise effort required for the things that do matter to us. This also requires deliberate periods of practicing contemplation and discernment to know which causes, actions, pursuits, and relationships are worthy of our precious energy.

Practice from the book The Wakeful Body by Willa Blythe Baker

“Imagine that you are just born into this moment. You are fresh and have forgotten everything you think you used to know. You have forgotten even how to parcel things into categories and significances. You have even forgotten language.

Sit still for a few minutes and watch what is happening. Notice how, without any effort at all on your part

Breath is breathing.  

Heart is beating.

Skin is tingling.

Thoughts are thinking.

Sounds are happening.

Light is radiating.

Your subtle body is humming.

While you are still, the entire world is unfolding spontaneously and effortlessly, like a magical display. See if you can rest in a state of pure wonder. Can you simply witness it all, with no agenda, with no fear, with no need to change a single thing?

Still, everything is unfolding of its own accord. This marvelous, spontaneous display springs out of nowhere, with no effort on your part. It is indescribable. A miraculous unfurling of color, sound, smell, thought, and feeling is happening.

… Wonder is a way of seeing things in their present-moment magic. It is a gaze of deep appreciation.”

https://www.shambhala.com/the-wakeful-body.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqOdqYtZLJa_TW6jzlAGlSm_3DllTvgtmkm1I7XQxoM0GwlR-Wc

Restful Resources

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