January Light & Lore | Renewal

January doesn’t need a reinvention. But I do like choosing a few things to carry, and a few things to try.

Not a goal list. Not a self-improvement overhaul. Just a quiet decision about what I want to return to, learn more about, or tend more carefully over the course of the year.

Last year, my focus wasn’t a skill at all. It was a practice: paying more attention to the rhythm of the year and actually marking the change of seasons instead of letting them blur together. That’s not something I want to do for a year and then move on from. It’s a way of living I want to carry forward, always.

This year, I’m keeping that, and choosing a couple more things to try again, gently.

I want to try again with calligraphy. I gave it a real attempt last year, and then I lost focus. And that’s okay. Some things don’t stick the first time, not because they weren’t meant for you, but because life was full.

And I want to take the year to perfect a Bundt cake.

I used to bake with my mom all the time. It was second nature then. Somehow, over the years, it’s become the thing that always goes wrong. Too dry, too dense, stuck to the pan, falling apart just when it should come out whole.

So instead of avoiding it, I’m choosing it.

Not to master it all at once. Not to get it right immediately. Just to keep showing up to it, learning what it needs, and letting the year teach me slowly.

That’s my January ritual, or maybe my January permission slip: keep what grounds me, try again at what I care about, and let the year be a steady teacher instead of a deadline.

A Line to Sit With

“Slowness is not stillness; it’s attention, stretched across a moment.” Rosie Steer, Slow Seasons

A Gentle Ritual for January

Instead of resolutions, choose a few practices to carry forward and one or two things you want to try again this year. Nothing grand. Nothing urgent. Just what feels worth tending.

Write them down. Keep the list somewhere visible. Let the year hold you accountable through time, not pressure.

The Renewal Playlist

If you want a gentle companion for this season of returning and choosing, I’ve gathered a small playlist to quietly sit with you as you go about your days.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7wLoBEd1coyk3vI20jmjbU?si=2c359ca4f7a7406c

There’s no rush to arrive, just steady curiosity and room to feel your way forward.

With warmth and wonder,

Jenn