Waiting in Winter
February Update
The naked trees spread their limbs to a frigid sky, waiting. The rock hard earth bides its time under a layer of papery brown leaves from last autumn. The animals make do with dry hay as they dream of green grass. I keep checking my weather app for forecasts of warmer temperatures.
Christmas and New Year’s are over; we’ve now entered the doldrums of mid winter. I can’t believe I’ve already flipped my calendar to February, 2026. Alas, spring is still two months away ...
Like most other Americans, waiting has never made the list of my top ten favorite activities. I don’t like doing it. It seems inefficient. At the same time, I know it serves a purpose. But it’s harder for me to wait in winter because everything outside seems cold and dead.
It’s a completely different thing waiting in spring. The whole world is bursting with new life. Even if you can’t yet harvest the sweet peas you planted, you can at least track their progress as green sprouts poke from the damp soil.
Winter affords fewer opportunities to track growth. But there have been some silver linings on the homestead which have recently encouraged me as I’ve waited for both seasonal and personal break throughs.
For starters, I resurrected the jar of sourdough which had been sitting in the corner of my fridge for months under an ominous layer of black liquid. It’s been fun learning a new baking skill and watching the bubbly starter expand as it sits near my stove. But making sourdough bread is a LONG process. You can’t rush the fermentation or the rising, otherwise you’ll end up with a doughy brick instead of a soft loaf. The microbes need time to do their job properly if you want any of the health benefits. And guess what? In winter, it takes even longer for the starter to activate. But last night, after two and a half days of watching and waiting, we finally sampled my first completed loaf! It actually looked something like the photo below:
We also recently acquired a new Nigerian Dwarf goat whom I’ve named Vivian. Why another goat? Unfortunately, none of my goats were due to give birth before April. Without baby goats hopping around, I don’t have any goat’s milk for homestead tourgoers to sample, nor an animal they can learn to milk themselves. So I needed a doe due ideally in March.
Vivian was not only pregnant, but her pregnancy had been verified with ultrasound (yes, really-into-it goat owners have their own ultrasound machines). And as a bonus, she was inexpensive and located less than two hours away. Easy-peasy.
I wish I’d checked the weather in Crossville before traveling there to pick her up. While in Soddy Daisy we only had the occasional flurry float by, in Crossville legit snow had started falling on the roads. It only took five minutes to make the exchange for my new herd member, but I was shocked at how quickly snow was carpeting the streets. At one stoplight, I totally pressed my brakes but continued moving forward toward the car in front of me. “Oh, no!” I said as my vehicle had morphed into a ten-foot sled.
Thankfully by God’s mercy, friction finally caught up with us and we stopped before getting into a fender bender. I was wide awake for the rest of the trip home and happy to report we made it back safe and sound. Although Vivian is still skittish, she’s melded well with the herd and is now eating out of my hand. As her barrel-like midsection continues to grow, I’m looking forward to some new kids shortly before spring arrives.
In other author news, I found out Not to Be is a finalist in the SCWC Notable Book Awards! This was an especially nice encouragement as I had just found out I’d lost a different book contest and have struggled to keep motivated as I edit my current sci-fi manuscript. I’m feeling so honored and hope this helps get my mystery novel out there for new folks to see.
I wish I could simply wrap this post up here with a smile and a thumbs up emoji and say something like, “So just look for your silver linings and you’ll weather the rest of this winter just fine.” But sometimes, winters can be so dark, you can’t find a silver lining.
While most nights where I live are clear enough to see thousands of stars, there are some cloudy nights where I can’t see anything. It’s just cold and dark. The memorial service of yet another person I knew from church happened this past weekend. I now have more than one person in my family diagnosed with cancer. We have some financial question marks. Some unresolved legal conflict. Difficulty parenting. Death and darkness are realities in this broken world, and sometimes you can’t just look on the bright side to get through it. Sometimes, you can’t even see what next step to take.
But what I can do is look backward.
Back to all the other times in my life when God came to the rescue or provided exactly what I needed when I could not provide for myself. I can look back to Scripture where God gave manna and water to sustain His people in the wilderness. I can remember the stories of God rescuing His people from their enemies again and again.
I can also look to Jesus who personally knows what it’s like to walk in this world even through the cold, dead darkness of winter — and see new life on the other side.
Lord, help me live well in whatever season I’m in. And thanks for the linings you do allow me to see.
Light and dark. Happy and sad. Sunshine and rain. Now and not yet. Life, growth, death. Abundant life. Thank you for your words from mid-winter on the homestead. Good words to keep us pondering. Thanks, Katie!
blessings!