Winter is here.
I exhale.
The season and my experience are unified.
Winter is a hibernation, a stripping away, a death.

2021 has been a series of {not so} unusual events.
It has been more than I cared to take.
I am relieved to find myself here, in winter.
There’s no pretending that life is in bloom.

It’s cold and dark.
Nature acknowledges the truth.
Sometimes we have to sit and mourn.
Winter dignifies this response.