Winter’s almost here, and researchers at the University of Glasgow have suggested that writing a letter to winter might help us feel less depressed by this time of year. When the idea hit the news recently, some laughed, but others gave it a try.
I wonder what you would say if you were to write a letter to winter? Perhaps you’d ask winter to stay away and leave us alone, let us go on enjoying mild days and light evenings all year long? Or maybe you’d ask for a cold, clear winter with snowfall for Christmas?
The idea is that writing a letter helps us think more about winter and may alter our perspective. So I wonder what kind of letter would do that. Would you write a thank-you letter, an upbeat letter, an angry letter or a sad letter? Would you ask winter questions, as if hoping for a reply? Would it be a long letter, as you think through memories of winter, hopes and fears, or would it be a note? Would you call winter names?
Like many of us, I think there are positives and negatives about winter, and I’d explore these in my letter. I’d tell winter that I like the vivid sunsets at this time of year, when the sky lights up with every shade of red and amber, sometimes at the end of a dark, cloudy day. I’d add that I love seeing bare trees silhouetted against the sky, ivy scrambling up trees – welcome colour – and conifer trees and holly and ivy berries. On winter walks, with less profusion of growth to look at, I like looking more closely at what remains and trying to be mindful. I’d tell winter I like lamp light as the evenings draw in – and that I love seeing those evenings gradually, slowly draw out again as light steals in once December 21 is behind us. And then there’s more time to be spent indoors, painting or drawing or crafting.
So far, so good. But if the letter’s supposed to explore how I feel about winter on every level, I need to be open. I’d have to tell winter how I do struggle with the cold, and sometimes with the dark, and that I feel winter outstays its welcome every single year. A few weeks would do fine! I’d explain to winter how rushing indoors early as the light fades feels frustrating, and how I dislike days of wind and rain all year but all the more when it’s cold too. I’d admit to winter how it limits life so less seems possible and how it feels like a time of waiting for life to start to open up once more in spring.
Maybe it’s worth a try? The idea of writing a letter feels like it personifies winter, gives it a character, which might feel odd – so you could write a journal entry instead. But in a way I think letter writing seems more expressive, more like getting your feelings out into the open to leave them there – even though winter won’t read your letter. Perhaps it helps set aside those feelings, so you can muddle through this time of year.
It would be great if you have any thoughts or experiences to share in Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002? Thank you.
Medley 