Out with the old and in with the new at Mid-Winter by Kaye Spencer #MFRWauthor #midwinter #candlemas

In the northern hemisphere, “Mid-Winter” marks the half-way point between the winter solstice in December and the spring equinox in March. If you add up the number of days from the first day of winter to the first day of spring and divide by two, you’ll find yourself right around February 1st, give or take a couple of days. I'm partial to this time of year, partly because my birthday falls at mid-winter and partly because I love the winter months.

Call it what you want—Imbolc, St. Brigid’s Day, Groundhog’s Day, Candlemas—Mid-Winter goes back to the ancient pagan days of celebrating the coming of spring. Six weeks of winter are behind, but only six more weeks of winter loom ahead. The days are lengthening. Despite the coldest, harshest days of winter may yet occur before spring really arrives, anticipation of brighter days brings hope.

Traditionally, and simplistically, the days around Mid-Winter are for cleansing, or the old saying, “out with the old and in with the new”. For writers, this is a perfect time for physical and mental cleansing activities.


Physically we can clean-up our actual writing area. We can do a thorough sweep, vacuum, and dust. We could rearrange the furniture, paint the walls, put up different curtains, wash windows. We should sort, file, discard, and purge the clutter that has piled up. We could burn incense or light a fragrant candle to change the atmosphere of the closed-in stuffiness that lingers through the winter months.

Mentally we should take stock of our writing progress. Am I on track with my writing and publishing plan? If yes, then celebrate this milestone. If not, then, why not? What is hindering my writing progress? Am I mentally weighed down by the *unfinishedness* of incomplete manuscripts? Am I spinning my creative writing wheels on the wrong story? Whatever the reasons, we must give ourselves permission to regularly cleanse our writing as we regularly cleanse our bodies.

Energize the writer within and give her the gift of a clean, uplifted writing outlook at Mid-Winter as she looks to the fresh writing days of the coming spring.

Until next time,

Kaye Spencer

Writing the West one romance upon a time

www.kayespencer.com

Twitter - @kayespencer

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