by Kat | Feb 23, 2026 | General, Words
It has been a curious month, my friends and here in the south hills of Pittsburgh, it has been a snowy one. In fact, we had more consecutive days with snow on the ground since I moved here almost 14 years ago now. And while most of my neighbors have found this phenomenon upsetting, I have loved it deeply.
I have often heard talk of the nostalgia of snow, the way that we always imagine our childhoods to have been snowier than they actually were. — Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
This statement rang profoundly true for myself as I navigated February… and the snowy month helped tremendously! I wandered down the halls of the memories of my Winter’s Past in Holland, Michigan… a place that is much snowier than Pittsburgh will ever be… and I delighted in the brief encounter with winter I could enjoy this year and we even got some snow overnight! I will take a check on the snowiest February in recent Pittsburgh history chart!
But in this deep winter month, I also began to see (and feel) changes… more noticeable daylight, the return of birdsong, I watched the snow from earlier in the month melt, and welcomed new coverings of snow more than once, I saw bulbs begin to sprout, and then over the weekend… I saw snowdrop blossoms opening in the crisp February air… all good things and this latest blanket of snow won’t hurt them at all. I felt very much these outward signs mirrored my inward feelings. Some days I felt lighter and some days did not but all around me the world was helping me move forward.
I also spent some time learning this month… stretching my brain, trying new things that feel awkward and uncomfortable in my hands. I attended a talk by Mark S. Burrows, Ph.D on “The Outward Gaze: Rilke, Rodin and the Conversation Between Poetry and Sculpture.” (this was so incredibly good…I will be jumping at the opportunity to do this again!) I took the Alabama Chanin Beading workshop that MDK offered and was dazzled (or is that bedazzled… HA!) by what I learned. (One brief side note… can I just say that if MDK announced that Natalie Chanin was going to lead a class of her reading the phone book, I’d sign up… honestly, her voice is the most soothing, calming thing ever.)
And yes… I knit almost an entire yoke of a sweater only to have to rip back to start again. But I learned that sometimes row gauge is crucial… and I have “mathed” out the solution and have slowly begun yoke knitting again.
The thing that keeps circling back to me about this month is this… I am not certain I would have done any of these things in any other time. I needed to be immersed in Deep Winter to have the space to contemplate these things… to go deeper with Rilke, to slow down and pick up the thinnest needle, thread it, and begin to… stitch by stitch… add some brilliance to a piece of fabric in a way that is entirely unfamiliar to me. And to have no other distractions to sit down and math out the solution to my “row gauge” issue.
Things that could only be accomplished with no other distractions calling made me see a new value for winter and I am tucking away ideas of things that might be interesting to contemplate next winter!
Finally, I will close with a poem by Nikki Giovanni… it is a poem of hers that was part of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Art in Transit program:
Winter Poem
by Nikki Giovanni
once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kiss
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower
And that, my friends, is the most perfect way to wrap up winter. Next month begins spring and while there might be some back and forth days as winter gives way and spring takes over… spring will eventually win! I’d also encourage you to check out how Cathy and Carolyn did this month!
I’ll see you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Jan 27, 2026 | General, Words
“I recognized winter. I saw it coming (a mile off, since you ask), and I looked it in the eye. I greeted it and let it in. I had some tricks up my sleeve, you see. I’ve learned them the hard way. When I started feeling the drag of winter, I began to treat myself like a favored child: with kindness and love. I assumed my needs were reasonable and that my feelings were signals of something important. I kept myself well fed and made sure I was getting enough sleep. I took myself for walks in the fresh air and spent time doing things that soothed me. I asked myself: What is this winter all about? I asked myself: What change is coming?” — Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
Winter arrived early for me last year… and though I did not see it coming I recognized it clearly when it arrived. And though I did not greet it warmly, I did let it in… and, as I wrote in my journal, I had some instructions for myself:
Sink into wintering grief and stillness.
Sit and listen and observe.
The path forward is there…let the fog clear.
I spent most of this month rereading Katherine May’s book, Wintering. It is a short book that I believe one could read in an afternoon or two, which I have done previously. But with this reading I decided to Yutori it… I read it slowly not with the goal to rush through but rather to sink into the wisdom Katherine shares in the pages… and there is so much there. Despite finishing it last week, I have gone back to passages and read them again and I am leaving the book on my desk to pick up as needed. I am thinking the February pages will be revisited frequently next month.
Every January I spend some time defining my new word, and I did that again this month. Surprisingly, the definitions were varied and so interesting. Things I knew and things I had not considered like this beautiful permission:
season : noun : an indefinite period of time
This idea really got me thinking about seasons not being simply set by dates on a calendar but rather freeing them from those constraints. This is not something that ever occurred to me… and yes, I am sure I read that definition before and likely many times before! I think this was one of my best “aha” moment of the month… permission to not constrain season and to just let it be indefinite.
All this sinking in to winter feels exactly right… in this time and space. I have gained an appreciation of the pace of the days. There is a delicious slowness to them… no urgency to rush to this thing or hurry to that thing. Just savoring the season… in all its glorious stillness. I have stepped back from the digital distractions as well… Steve now asks me if I saw that “thing” he sent to me, and the answer is usually that I did not. (He is not amused but I might be!) But it feels good to have a bit of a January digital detox!
What there has been is a reinvigoration of my daily stitching and a delight in the beginning of my third 100 Day Stitch Book. Rather than feeling like I am crunched for time, I have instead leaned in to sitting quietly, listening to that quiet voice in my head and, observing… and without really having a “plan” for my squares or a concrete plan for the stitch book outside of utilizing a well worn sock… ideas began to form over the course of the days. It makes me so happy to feel my creativity having a bit of a spring renewal… here in the depths of winter… maybe I am finding that path forward!
So yes, January was a very good start on my year leaning into season.
I know there is no link up this year, but Cathy and Carolyn are my word companions this year… I’d love it if you stopped by and see how their journeys are beginning!
Header photo by Alexander Kovalev
by Kat | Dec 29, 2025 | General, Words
Greetings dear friends, and welcome to the last update of our words for 2025. You will find the link up at the bottom of this post. Thank you so much for joining me this year as, together, we examined how a specific focus could impact our days. I am eager to read your updates!
Yutori:
The conscious act of slowing down to allow us to savor the world around us. The refusal to rush. No talking. Just absorbing the world around us with no goal except to see. Spaciousness.
I am circling back to the beginning to close things out this year. I spent all of November journaling every single day and the result of those days birthed the idea of a bit of a Yutori Advent Calendar of sorts. This month, I have spent each morning quietly sitting with myself and writing a few reflections on my thoughts and my feelings. It has been the best thing ever. There is something truly magical in consciously slowing down, savoring the world around me, not rushing, quietly absorbing with absolutely no goal at all other than to just be.
This might be my last month with a focus on Yutori, but this last year has helped me build some brilliant strategies that I will be carrying with me as I go forward.
As 2025 draws to a close, I am happy to share that despite having a year with much uncertainty, pain and loss… Yutori was exactly what I needed to get through this year.
And although I am not stepping into 2026 “healed” and raring to go… I am very comfortable stepping in exactly as I am with all that I carry with me. And that, my friends, is a very, very good thing!
If you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below. This link up will only be open until midnight on the 31st.
I wish you a very Happy New Year, I will be back on January 5th.
by Kat | Nov 24, 2025 | General, Words
I know that I said last week that there would not be a post today, a conversation with a dear friend helped me see that this post might be helpful to me and I am certain that all of you sharing things that you discovered during the month with your words might be helpful to me as well… so here I am.
This month, my focus was to make an attempt to slow down these waning days of 2025, which felt like they were racing past at warp speed.
The Be Careful of What You Wish For slow down arrived abruptly last Monday and I have been in this strange time ever since. All constructs of time feel broken… or maybe it is me that is broken. Let me tell you though, I much prefer the work of the Yutori of Slowing Down versus the Yutori of Grief.
And so to help occupy consume time, on Thursday I picked up some knitting… but not knitting that if I made a mistake (which was highly likely) that it would be problematic to fix… cloud knitting is not grief knitting. Fortunately I had a long forgotten sock that I had haphazardly begun last April… I was at the point of the decreases that work down the foot. Could I string my thoughts together to work through those decreases? Maybe? And if I could not, would it really matter?
And so I poured all my grief into these stitches. Likewise, these stitches hold an abundance of worry I have for my son and his wife as they navigate the unthinkable. That worry also created some righteous anger that I poured into the stitches… so much anger. And before I knew it, that first sock was done. I cast on the second sock and continued to fill it with tears and heartbreak and emptiness… and a measure of guilt… yes, guilt. Guilt over the delight of the daily update of Odette.
Who knew that the Yutori of Grief would also have moments of indescribable joy and so I knit that guilt into the sock as well.
I am closing in on the finish of this second sock…I am at the toe decreases as I schedule this to post. However, it seems evident to me that these are socks that I don’t think I can ever wear (I mean… these socks hold so much… so much, I fear they would be painful to wear.) Instead, I will tuck these socks away… a reminder of grieving for what won’t be.
When I settled in with this word this year… I had no idea at all how it would help shape my days and honestly, last month I was feeling quite “done” with Yutori. But life had other plans because I had no idea of how Yutori would also help shape my grief. Divine intervention? I don’t know… truthfully, my anger with the divine right now is off the charts. I prefer to settle in with my much loved Rilke and his wisdom about living the questions… questions that have absolutely no answers and likely never will…
Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. — Rainer Maria Rilke
And so, yes… I am even living (and knitting) grief with all its unanswered questions.
Thank you for allowing me the space to share this most excruciating time with you all. And thank you even more for all the kind support you are giving me through your thoughts and for holding me and my family close in your hearts. It has been an immeasurable boon of good that is bearing me up each day. I will be back on Wednesday, I think… with something, I am not sure exactly what… perhaps another sock?
As always, if you have an update to share about how your word and you fared this month… I welcome your update and I am eager to read it! You can leave your link below!
by Kat | Oct 27, 2025 | General, Words
Greetings and Happy October Word Update Day to all my fellow “Worder’s”!
How was October? By now I hope you have settled into a “zone” with your word, but despite being very comfortable with the direction of your year… I hope you still are finding something new and exciting to learn! If you are sharing the October Update, you will find the link up at the bottom of this post! Welcome and thank you for participating!
Enjoy these last moments, here, now, as much as you can.
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo
Yes, yes, and yes! I confess, I am very much enjoying Yutori Days… weeks… months! And to spend my favorite month of the year with a very Yutori focus… well it does not get better than this!
It is truly amazing how one’s perspective changes with simple act of slowing down. This month, particularly, a changed perspective has saved my sanity more than once! (It has been A. Month! has it not?)
I have also put Yutori to good use when doing tasks I particularly don’t care for and while I don’t like washing floors or vacuuming or doing the dishes any more than I did before… there is something almost meditative about the activities. I allow my mind to wander where it wants to go and I am surprised by the creative paths it journeys down! (My most recent Yutori Thinking Spells have included how my next year of stitching will evolve!) I did not have Yutori = more creativity on my radar when I began this journey!
The other thing that has surprised me this year is how my “slowed down” reading has been this year! Even without paging through the book notes portion of my journal, I remember far more about the books I have read this year than previous years! I simply take a moment or two after finishing a book to jot down some thoughts about the book. An extra moment or two to linger with a book is a very good thing. I will absolutely be carrying this with me… it is a practice that is serving me well!
Finally, last Saturday was Frankie’s Gotcha Day! I confess, the blur of those first puppy days and all the interrupted sleep of last November and December feels like a distant memory that happened in another life. But, this month especially, Frankie and I have found a bit of a Yutori pace for our days together. Or perhaps it is that Frankie has settled in with my routine but it makes me feel very good to say that I am very much Frankie’s Person. Yutori Days with a pet are the best thing ever!
Who’s the best boy ever?
And there you have my October update!
If you wrote a post to share this month, please leave your link below! I am most eager to read it and I thank you so much for participating!
by Kat | Sep 29, 2025 | General, Words
Greetings everyone and welcome to the September update! We are nine months done… and I have questions for you all!
- How is your year going?
- Are you finding that your word is helping?
- And, most importantly, what have you implemented to your days thanks to your word?
You will find the link up at the bottom of this post. I am so eager to read how you all are doing this month!
In the early days of September I stumbled across a poem by Lynn Ungar — a most happy accident! It is almost as if Lynn had her own Yutori Year, and she noted it beautifully in her poem, The Way It Is. I have spent lots of time with this poem this month as I eased into a new chapter of life as I try and accept and assimilate some changes to my days. And Lynn Ungar absolutely helped!
The Way It Is
by Lynn Ungar
One morning you might wake up
to realize that the knot in your stomach
had loosened itself and slipped away,
and that the pit of unfilled longing in your heart
had gradually, and without your really noticing,
been filled in patched — like a pothole, not quite
the same as it was, but good enough.
And in that moment it might occur to you
that your life, though not the way
you planned it, and maybe not even entirely
the way you wanted it, is nonetheless—
persistently, abundantly, miraculously—
exactly what it is.
The Way It is © Lynn Ungar, 2015.
Thank you, dear Ms. Ungar for these words, this meditation, this realization that what it is is exactly what it should be.
Header photo by Suzy Hazelwood
I hope that what you are finding as September draws to a close is that you are nearing the same space… that what it is is exactly where you should be!
If you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below and thank you!
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