The Quiet Is Here
As the Winter Solstice approaches, and the light wanes, and the darkness increases, this is our time to rest and be quiet... just like the natural world around us
Friends, this message is meant to be a gift for you. Keep it nearby. Reference it whenever you want to remember what your body, mind, heart, spirit are calling for right now. Remember to take moments away from the copious activities you feel drawn into… and be with the quiet that is your birthright. More below….
Learning: A Lesson for You
This is a hard time of year for a lot of us.
There’s the rush of the holidays. Extra happy hours. Parties. Festive lunches. Family gatherings. Shopping. Eating. Cooking. To-dos. While most of this stuff is fun, it also fills our life to the gills in a way that can feel overwhelming.
For fundraisers, the year-end sprint is usually one of the most intense and seemingly relentless times of year. In the past weeks, I’ve had fundraising colleagues tell me they’re tirrrrred. Crispy. White-knuckling it. Burned out.
Those of us who are processing losses and grief often seem to feel it stronger than ever during this stretch of days.
There’s also the increasing darkness…
… and the accompanying cold.
Both of these material realities can really affect our bodies and nervous systems — not to mention our minds, hearts, and spirits.
Over the last few weeks, the days have been getting shorter and shorter in the Northern Hemisphere. Some of us get hardly any moments outside in the sun — if any at all. The Winter Solstice will arrive on Sunday, bringing our shortest day and longest night of the year with it.
This extra darkness…
… and lack of light…
… can feel…
… hard for us humans.
Yes?
But here’s the thing.
We are nature.
We don’t just appreciate nature. Or spend time in nature. We are nature. Literally. The atoms that patchwork together our bodies are built from the same substance that fills the towering trees looming over us… and animates the tiny critters around us… and powers the sparkling stars in the sky. We move and grow within cyclical rhythms, just like all of these other parts of the natural world.
And this rhythm?
The one that brings darkness?
The one that shifts the planet so that those of us in the North are tilting away from the sun as far as we will ever be?
This time brings the quiet.
Growth slows. Plants and animals sleep. Activity slows to a crawl — especially on the darkest and coldest days.
And as a part of nature, we are meant to do the same.
Hold up.
Remember all the things I referenced in the beginning?!
Yeah.
They make it pretty difficult to slow down during these days.
I get that some of this is pretty hard to change, given how we’ve collectively agreed to a year-end rhythm that is anything but slow and quiet.
Still.
We can find moments.
And I encourage you to do that.
If there’s a morning… or an afternoon… or an evening…. or even a whole day that you can clear your calendar and just be for a while… do it. If you can light more candles… do it. If you can take a nap… or sleep in a bit… do it. If you can soak in a warm epsom salt and bubble bath… do it. If you can just sit or lie down and listen to some of your favorite music… do it. If you can up your intake of warm drinks… do it. If you can take something (or several somethings!) off your calendar… do it.
You dig?
Wishing you a calm, quiet, restful, restorative transition into the new year.
Are you looking for some comrades to commiserate with? How about some peers to level-set something for you? Or someone to help you find what you need… because they did it themself last year? All of this, and more, is what I anticipate happening at Community-Weaving for Fundraisers.
Just fundraisers. Gathering for (virtual) lunch together. Twice a month. Year-round. Chatting and supporting each other via WhatsApp in between lunches. Being there for each other. All you need to do is show up, be present. I facilitate, organize, and create the container.
The Waiting List is open now. Get on it!
Conversation: Your Responses
Got more to say? Visit the comments section!
Use some down time during this year-end season to catch up on episodes of the For the Love of Humanity Podcast!
Ep 05 | If I’m a Fundraiser, Why Do I Need to Do Inner Work? might help you understand why this loveletter is called Inner Work… and why we talk so much here about inner, energetic realities more than we talk about more external norms, strategies, tactics, or general ideas.
Ep 07 | Vu Le Enters His Elder Era: Wisdom Incoming! is classic Vu in some ways… and a new side of him in others. I genuinely believe I called the arrival of his so-called “elder era.” And you really need to hear him talk about his new book. Have you ordered it — or even read it — yet?!
Ep 11 | Hope for Turtle Island? Right Here is a doozy for our final episode of 2025. Like I said in the intro, this is the longest episode we’ve published so far… and it’s because I just couldn’t cut more! There is so much good content when Alex Sterling is in the room. Seriously, y’all. Check out the inspiring work Alex’s got starting up at Turtle Island Community Capital… and consider supporting it too!
Practice: Make It Yours
Do you know where your solar plexus is?
Look down at your abdomen. Rest one of your hands on your torso right below where you can feel your sternum bone ending. Then rest your other hand on top of the first hand. Now, you are essentially feeling and tuning into your solar plexus.
Come back to this spot often.
Waiting in line? Find that position with your hands quietly resting. Take one deep breath after another, and feel your hands rising and falling. Notice how doing so might not only tune you into yourself, but also tune you into everyone else around you.
In a conversation that is bothering you? Return to this position. Notice what is happening within your solar plexus. Likely, it is spinning with your emotional upheaval. Breathe deep breaths into that spot. Feel your hands rising and falling. Notice how many breaths it takes for you to feel grounded and calm again.
Taking a quiet moment between activities? Find someplace where you can be alone for a few moments. Return to this position. Breathe deeply again. Feel your hands rising and falling. Marvel at this body you have. Give thanks for the chance to be here, now, on this planet, breathing, laughing, crying, loving, grieving, being.
💗
Inspiration: Something to Savor
Click here or on the image below to listen to a beautiful song about the longest night of the year, by a folk acoustic songwriter, singer, and guitarist that I have long loved, Peter Mayer.
As he says, “There is a diamond in the soul of the longest night of the year.”
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I resonate so much with what you wrote about needing quiet in the year-end rush; it realy makes me wonder how everyone else manages to carve out that space for themselves when your perspective is so spot on and needed.