The Resting Season
preparing for the winter solstice
Winter asks for less
Frozen ground beneath my feet
Rest is not empty
As I walk through a Colorado valley, the hard thick snow that blankets the ground crackles & crunches beneath my feet. Patches have completely frozen over with thick slick ice making the walk precarious….Wind whips through the pines, tugging warmth from my face and hands, while coyotes cry out from the distant sleepy hills. A startled rabbit bolts from the nearby brush, it runs across the icy landscape, it is too light to break through the hard snow.
The night sky above me is cloudless, It hangs there like an inky black sea filled with stars. The moon has yet to show itself, its white glowing light delicately traces the outline of a distant ridgeline. Called the cold moon or wolf moon, this moon rise will the last full and final super moon of the year. A cold wind picks back up and flecks of icy snowy burn against my bare face.
I find myself asking why I’m outside at all.
But then stillness.
winter silence settles over the land.
12/5/25
The winter solstice is almost upon us
This solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It is a liminal threshold……a pause…..when the energy of winter asks us to go inward. Calling us home to rest, and reflect, to introspection and hibernation.
And yet, within this deepest darkness, something turns. This is the exact moment the sun begins to return, gently the days will begin to grow longer. Slowly we will emerge back into the warmth of the sun feeling renewed. The solstice holds both darkness and hope, death and rebirth, a much needed reminder that after darkness light always follows, even when its warmth still feels far away.
I often create yearly pieces around astronomical events, small markers of the seasons shifting. Most of these works live inside my sketchbooks as loose sketchy concepts, personal diary entries meant only for myself. A space to observe and process, to create freely, without the pressure of social media.
But every so often, one of these sketches tells me that it needs to become something more.
A changing season
Throughout human history this was a time of retreat into our cozy little dwellings, into ourselves. A season to acknowledge the year we have lived, what we’re carrying, and what we’re ready to shed & release as the new year approaches.
Somewhere along the way, this season of rest has been taken from us, and violently transformed into one of the most intense, stressful and demanding times of the year. My body screams for me to slow down, while society on the other hand insists on my constant productivity. As a small business owner, I’m told I should be making a third of my yearly income in just the handful of weeks that are the holiday season.
This year felt especially heavy for many of my artist & maker friends. With this year’s sales slower than the past, and the ever rising cost of living, many of us felt extremely pressured to overextend and push ourselves well beyond our healthy limits. This kind of toxic overworking is easily glorified in American culture, and social media seems to amplify and praise it. Only afterwards when we are met with the extreme exhaustion of burnout does it become clear how harmful and unsustainable this is.
Rest should not be a luxury, it’s a necessity for our bodies & health. We are animals after all, we are a part of nature, just like the land, plants and critters around us. And like them, we are not meant to be in a state of constant motion.
We are not built for this.
Rest as resistance
I grew up in an environment where rest wasn’t valued. Napping or taking time for yourself was seen as lazy or wasteful. It did not matter how tired you were because somebody else always had it harder than you, the only way to be successful is to keep working through the pain. This mindset has left me with deep scars tying my self worth to productivity, it has been incredibly damaging in the long run and lead to many health issues. Only in my 30s am I just learning how to take a nap without shame or guilt.
Slowing down isn’t always socially rewarded, so I would like to remind you that it’s okay to actually rest. It is important that you do so, especially if this past year has left you feeling burned out or emotionally exhausted. With everything going on in the world and this country it has been a heavy difficult year for many of us.
As the solstice arrives this weekend, I hope you be who you need & allow yourself rest and warmth, even when the world asks otherwise. May this season of darkness & stillness give you what you need.
-Holls