For many of us, the winter season offers a time of rest and renewal. Regardless of the weather outside, we can find comfort in the cozy warmth of home and the company of our loved ones.
For those of us who actually feel happier and more like ourselves during the shorter days of the year, we’re not alone. Some research suggests the return to standard time in November is a better match for human circadian rhythms, which offers both physical and emotional benefits.
Winter is also a great time for introspection and contemplation, to reevaluate our short- and long-term goals and refocus our priorities. As the natural world settles into a serene silence and life begins to slow down after the holiday rush, we may discover a new interest or revisit a hobby we haven’t had time to pursue. Winter grants us the time to reconnect — with family, with friends, and with ourselves.
Whether we enjoy the slower pace and colder weather of winter or yearn for the arrival of spring, these wintry quotes encourage quiet reflection and remind us to embrace the joy and inner warmth to be found throughout the season.
O simple, precarious, eternal realm of snow! You turn a man into a gay child, intent and devoted to his playful leisure.Colette
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”Lewis Carroll
Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.Edith Sitwell
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.Albert Camus
Thank goodness for the first snow, it was a reminder—no matter how old you became and how much you’d seen, things could still be new if you were willing to believe they still mattered.Candace Bushnell
Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal, underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me.Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The first fall of snow is not only an event, but it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up to find yourself in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, then where is it to be found?J.B. Priestley
That’s what winter is: an exercise in remembering how to still yourself then how to come pliantly back to life again.Ali Smith
Snow was falling, / so much like stars / filling the dark trees / that one could easily imagine / its reason for being was nothing more / than prettiness.Mary Oliver
Winter kept us warm, covering / Earth in forgetful snow.T.S. Eliot
Winter is the most hygge time of year. It is candles, nubby woolens, shearling slippers, woven textiles, pastries, blond wood, sheepskin rugs, lattes with milk-foam hearts, and a warm fireplace.Anna Altman
A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.Susan Orlean
When we surrender to the flow of winter, a powerful wave carries us far from the rush of everyday life and inwards, to the place where our truth lies waiting. This is a time to reconnect with our essence, our humanity, our deep-seated creativity, and our place in nature.Beth Kempton
Only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quieter stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.Ruth Stout
Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.Paul Theroux
What fire could ever equal the sunshine of a winter’s day? … The warmth comes directly from the sun, and is not radiated from the earth, as in summer; and when we feel his beams on our backs as we are treading some snowy dell, we are grateful as for a special kindness.Henry David Thoreau
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.William Blake
Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible. Once we stop wishing it were summer, winter can be a glorious season in which the world takes on a sparse beauty and even the pavements sparkle. It’s a time for reflection and recuperation, for slow replenishment.Katherine May
Featured image credit: Amahce/ Shutterstock
