A Quiet Holiday

I’ve been practicing yoga every day for the past two weeks, and this morning, our leader talked a lot about the solstice—about embracing this quiet, reflective time of year. And I’m taking that message to heart.

I’ll be on a hiatus until the new year. I need a break from writing and cooking and social media—boy! do I need a break from the computer. If you’d like, you may imagine me drinking tea, practicing yoga, walking in the snow, watching movies with Dave, and losing myself in books. Doesn’t that sound like just what I need?! (You’re welcome to drop me a line if you have a question or comment!)

But I don’t want to abandon you completely, so here are a few links to keep you well fed—in body and mind—until I return to my computer keyboard in 2017.

Five Paleo Dinners To Cook Next Week

Here are the links to last year’s recipe roundups from around this time (and here’s a link to all of the Five Dinner posts):
December 10, 2015
December 17, 2015
January 7, 2016

Reading Day

In 2014, we instituted Reading Day—a day devoted to being quiet with a book and nourishing food—and it was one of the smartest things we’ve ever done. Now it’s a tradition we enjoy a few times every year. Full description and tips right here.

The Best Version of Ourselves

We all need a reminder sometimes that we are enough, just as we are. This essay I wrote in 2011 is still my touchstone; I hope you like it, too.

Whole30 Food Plans

I have a month’s worth of Whole30 food plans, including menus, recipes, shopping lists, and complete step-by-step instructions to cook a week’s worth of food in the shortest time possible. Get Week One right here. (And all my Whole30 resources here.)

The Shortest Day

I want to leave you with this lovely poem by Susan Cooper. It’s become a holiday tradition in our house, thanks to a singing and dancing pageant called the Christmas Revels. I recommend reading this poem aloud to the people you love.

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us—listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.

 

That beautiful photo of the snowy scene is by Flickr user Denis Collete.
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