On Hibernation: Inviting Winter in // Part 3

The Muse Letter No. 36

Utagawa Hiroshige, Gion Shrine in Snow (1834,) British Museum (not on display)

Christmas is past us now. Gifts unwrapped, bellies filled with deliciousness and “I’ll have another one”, now the days of the in-betweens begin. The nothing-matters-days. It’s over and hasn’t yet begun. The days apparently have started to get longer again, we’re past Winter solstice, but we’re not seeing a difference yet. It’s still dark in the morning and in the afternoon. Everything still seems the same.

These days used to make me restless. A need to fill them with activities and meeting people, as if by the end, someone would show up and hand me a certificate: Holidays successfully completed. This idea that even our free time has value and needs to be maximised. I’m not buying it this year. I leave it on the shelf. Somebody else can take that, if they feel like it.

“In our relentlessly busy contemporary world, we are forever trying to defer the onset of winter. We don’t ever da…