November 3rd 2023

November. Everything begins to come to a close. Everything is put to rest. We’re talking now about the last bit of field work and the last days of grazing in the pasture. And I find myself relieved and simultaneously anxious in the shadow of a few dark and quiet months. But winter has its own kind of work to be done. Looking over equipment, training goals with the horses that we often don’t have time for in busier seasons, and of course I’m constantly looking ahead and thinking about next year. But I think it can be a trap to assume we must move through winter in a frenzy. So I wonder what I will put down this winter. Will I worry less? Will I stop complaining? Will I finally talk less and listen more? Will I embrace the stillness and quiet of winter or will I talk endlessly and race through it into spring? Who do I want to be when the world thaws and the birds return, singing, in their branches? What will I have learned if I finally pause to watch my breath form clouds in the cold morning air?