A Winter Exhale
I pulled the throw over my chest and tucked my book into my lap, shifting until I was just a little more comfortable.
Pen, check.
Sticky tabs, check.
Cup of tea, check.
This has been my preferred state of existence during nearly every free evening I’ve been blessed with this past month. I can’t remember the last time my husband and I had time to simply sit on the sofa and watch a movie, read a book, or work on something we enjoy without it feeling rushed or fleeting.
We’ve spent the past couple of years filling our time with wonderful experiences, always going somewhere or doing something. But as this year winds down, it feels like we’ve finally accepted that we’re allowed to savour our free time by simply being home. To curl up on the couch together and watch a movie. To spend hours reading or tinkering away at our own little hobbies. To do something purely because we genuinely enjoy it, not because it’s a task or a way to fill the time.
More importantly, it finally feels like the needs and wants of my mind are in agreement. The usual nagging voice that insists I should be doing something more “productive” has, for once, stayed mostly quiet.
I can’t even recall the last time I read a physical copy of a novel, especially one too large to toss into my purse and carry around. Alchemized by SenLinYu is a thousand-plus page masterpiece that demanded my full attention. It asked me to sit down properly, most often at the dining table, its pages spread flat, pen in hand, ready to underline, emphasize, and scribble thoughts into the margins.
Most of my reading over the past few years has lived on my Kindle. What was meant to be a quick twenty minutes before bed often stretched deep into the night, much to the future annoyance of my morning self who would regret every “just one more chapter.” I squeezed reading in between tasks, while eating, while waiting for sleep to take me, but I almost never carved out a few uninterrupted hours simply to read.
These past few weeks, though, I finally had the chance to dedicate time to reading without feeling like I was stealing it from something else. I found myself utterly consumed by this story, eager to uncover more and already mourning its inevitable end. If you know, you know.
Maybe it’s the year nearing its close, the holidays drifting closer, or the fact that this side of the world now goes dark by five in the evening. But for me, it’s the combination of soft lamplight warming our cool living room, blankets draped haphazardly over the sofa inviting me to unravel them, my husband watching the game, and our puppy stretched out beside us. Together, they create a level of calm I haven’t felt in months.
These final weeks of December feel like the perfect way to close out a year packed to the brim with adventure, experiences, and memories. A gentle unwinding after an intense stretch. Exactly the exhale we needed before 2026 tries to sweep us up again.