On Hibernation: The Long Exhale // Part 1

The Muse Letter No. 34

Midwinter in Moominvalley, Tove Jansson

It’s the time of the long exhale, hot air forming clouds in the cold winter nights. It’s time to defer anything too big, too heavy, too much to next year. Let it be 2021’s problem. The legs are still moving but like a robot being picked up mid-walk from a kid, feet pending back and forth, it’s time to take out the batteries and re-charge. You’re not a robot, you can stop moving, stop reacting.

This year I will go into hibernation. I have started telling my friends a while ago, to keep me accountable. So I guess writing about it now is the final move to make something happen, well technically, make the absence of anything happen. Anyway, from the 21st of December till the 6th of January I will leave social media and stop working and just well rest or to be exact, be: project-less for a moment and see what that feels like. To re-connect with myself, take stock, see what doesn’t fit anymore and what does. In next week’s Muse Letter I will talk a bit more about what that will entail plus the wonderful Hannah Krutman aka Hannah Lagom so kindly gave me an interview about the “magic nights” between winter solstice and the beginning of January but for now just know that you will still hear from me, well to be exact from my past-self as I will pre-write these. I wonder what that will feel like. Probably not too different from now, as everything is always pre-written in a way when you think about it. What I can say is that there will be some extra cool things coming to get you through and in a way myself through this time of introspection and clearing a path for the new year to come.