Midwinter spring is its own season…
Between melting and freezing
The soul’s sap quivers. There is no earth smell
Or smell of living thing. This is the spring time
But not in time’s covenant. Now the hedgerow
Is blanched for an hour with transitory blossom
Of snow, a bloom more sudden
Than that of summer, neither budding nor fading,
Not in the scheme of generation.
Where is the summer, the unimaginable
Zero summer?from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Little Gidding
January. Scientific studies on the best ways to overcome procrastination, articles about beating January blues, dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder, Positive Thinking Strategies and following through on recently made (and already broken) New Year’s Resolutions.
But what if the pull towards hibernation is actually the incubation phase of creative process, the place where everything springs forth? Allowing a natural space or pause to emerge in creative process may be re-energizing. Following the natural January urge to slow down may permit dormant creative energies to emerge and bloom. Even if Spring does feel far away in this moment.
Susan Leopold Illustration 