Holding on, letting go

Savoring winter, welcoming spring

As winter draws to a close, so too will this newsletter - this will be the last Wintry Mix of the season. If you’re in the U.S., you’re officially now on spring light, even if the temperature is still chilly. (In Europe, the clocks will change at the end of the month.) Next week is the spring equinox, when the whole world gets the same amount of daylight - after this, the Northern Hemisphere will officially have longer days than nights, and Tromsø will start inching towards the Midnight Sun - the opposite of the Polar Night - the two-month period in which the sun never sets.

The seasonal change coming out of winter somehow feels less linear than the change going into winter. One warm day and we’re ready to shed our winter layers, say goodbye to our scarves and hats, step into the sun. But the next day the temperature drops again. Rob, my husband, has dubbed this “delusional spring”. We all fall victim to the delusion now and again; these false-spring days seem to be getting more frequent, worsened by our warming winters (in the Netherlands, yesterday was the 4th record-breaking warm day of 2024).

Learning to embrace - and maybe even love - winter is about learning to cherish something fleeting. It’s special, in part, because it ends. So whether you’re somewhere (like Colorado, I heard) still getting dumped with snow or experiencing your own record-breaking temperature highs, I’m signing off with a final challenge, the most basic but most important of all: be wherever you are. When the temperatures drop again, don’t bemoan the lingering winter - revel in it for a few more days. When spring comes, sniff the hyacinths and turn your face towards the sun. Let it be winter or let it be spring or let it be neither-here-nor-there.

I’ll be back in your inbox this fall, with more challenges, more musings, and more strategies for embracing winter - alongside a whole book full of them. Between now and then, I’ll miss you, but I’ll be enjoying the weather, wherever I am.

Thank you for following along, Wintry Mixers. Until next time,

Kari

Notes from the slush pile:

• Wishing for spring, from the New Yorker:

  

• These very warm spring temperatures are signs of climate change. In one island town in Ohio, warm weather means less ice - which is a bigger problem than you might think. If you want to help join the fight to Protect Our Winters, get involved or donate one of my favorite organizations here.

• Auspicious timing: as I prepared to write the last Wintry Mix of the season, my very first book galleys arrived in the mail from the UK!

  

  Note my one-week-a-year light jacket. (Cover not final!)