Field Notes #40
Invitation to the Best Winter Ever Workshop + thoughts on this Dead Week
Hello, friends, on this Dead Week of the year. I love this quiet, do-nothing week between Christmas and New Year’s. I am sleeping in, baking cookies, seeing the magical Nutcracker ballet for the first time, and visiting with family. How do you like to spend your Dead Week?
Later this week, I’ll be hosting a Best Winter Ever Workshop. In this virtual gathering, we’ll reimagine the winter season together, coming up with lists of joyful things and plotting a 3-part plan. You’ll leave with an actionable plan unique to you that I hope lights you up, as well as encouragement to turn to on hard winter days. Studies show about 14% of people in North America (mainly in the northern states) get the winter blues, that low-energy drag in this cold, dark season. The workshop is not a webinar and it’s not medical advice. It’s meant to be interactive; you will meet other kind people! I hope it’s a fun break in this week for you. It’s free this time around; it might not be in the future. Register for the Best Winter Ever Workshop, Saturday, Dec. 31, 9-11 a.m. ET, or Monday, Jan. 2, 1-3 p.m. ET.
1 health nudge
The term “Dead Week” comes from this wonderful article by Helena Fitzgerald, where she extols a week in which little happens:
“We celebrate Dead Week by having no idea what to do during Dead Week and, within that confusion, quietly luxuriating in what might be the only collective chance for deep rest all year. … These five days are the purest unit of nothing time that the year offers. Nothing time is different from free time; Dead Week is not a vacation and not a holiday, but we are afforded so little truly unmarked and nonurgent time that five days when nothing really matters can feel like something more precious than either one.” — Helena Fitzgerald in The Atlantic, writing about the week between Christmas and New Year’s
It reminded me of the need for kids to have open, spacious time for play. I spent so much nothing time as a kid — reading, or daydreaming, or wandering the woods, or yes, watching TV or playing Super Mario Brothers. As a grown-up, that time has dwindled. I fear that the internet and social media has soaked up our nothing time like a sponge. I bet it would be good for all of us to reclaim it, to carve out time to put down our phones and computers and do nothing. It’s not really nothing, of course, but nothing with a striving or goal or itchy “like” button nearby.
How could we create nothing time?
An afternoon with the Internet router off.
A walk without the phone.
Starring at the night sky or looking at the sunrise or sunset
What is your favorite kind of nothing time?
2 quotes
“Another thing I think about a lot is loneliness. It’s something that’s really hard about New York. You can be surrounded by people but not know anyone. But if you take a bit of time to care for a tree? Then, for better or worse, you and that tree have a relationship. Even knowing how to identify different plants—you aren’t simply walking by a bunch of green things, then, but instead you know the plants by name. I can’t really explain it, but it makes me feel a little less alone.” — Stephanie Foo, talking to Isaac Fitzgerald in his newsletter Walk It Off, where he interviews someone in New York while on a long walk. (Yes, it’s as fantastic as it sounds.) Stephanie is the author of the memoir What My Bones Know and a Parks Department Super Steward.
My exhaustive list of tips for making more time for reading are as follows:
Creating a sort of holy shield around my bedtime reading time. It is my favorite part of the day and I guard it ruthlessly.
Canceling most of my newspaper/magazine subscriptions.
— Luisa Weiss, in her marvelous annual list of books she read this year
3 links
🧣How to Stay Warm, from an Arctic Researcher (Vox) This is from 2020, but the advice still holds, including the importance of loose layers and body circulation: “If you’re wearing 700 layers and you’re like the Michelin man and you can’t move, all that padding isn’t going to do you any good if you block off your circulation,” [arctic researcher and professor Cathy Geiger] explains.
🎁 You Don't Need To Get Married or Have a Kid To Have a Party: The Case for the Non-Baby Baby Shower — This Q&A with Nicole Washington in Anne Helen Peterson’s newsletter Culture Study shows vividly how (and why) we can create big celebrations for all sorts of occasions and life moments for people we love, outside of the milestones our modern society often anchors around, like the wedding, baby shower, graduation.
✏️ Unravel Your Year workbook — This free annual PDF from writer Susannah Conway is a marvel of prompts to reflect on the past year and anticipate the year to come. It’s lovely and enormous (83 pages!). I like to print out the questions that speak to me, like When did you feel most like yourself this year? Learn more and sign up here or download the PDF straight-away.
I hope you have a wonderful last stretch of 2023. I hope to see some of you later this week! Sign up for the Best Winter Ever Workshop together here.
To our journeys,
Brianne