I’ve found myself running low on creative energy during the dark winter months, especially this year. Blog posts and stories don’t come to mind as easily; or, if they do, I haven’t felt motivated to actually write them. Although I know that this is not at all uncommon, it still goes in the category of frustrating stuff that leaves me feeling stuck and pointlessly ruminating on what went wrong.

So I decided to look at it as an opportunity to apply my New Year’s resolution of gratitude for the not-fun lessons. I asked myself: What is good about these days when I don’t feel like writing? First of all there’s the Internet and blogging in general, allowing me to read and comment on others’ posts and feel a sense of connection, regardless of whether I post a blog entry myself on a particular day. Next up on the gratitude list is simply that my blog exists and has been around for a while (its five-year anniversary is coming up next month). Whether or not I feel like writing, the site is always there, giving me a platform to build on.

Another good thing is that even though the winter days are cloudy and dark, they haven’t been particularly cold this year. Birds were chirping merrily outside my front door on Sunday morning. When I stepped outside, I saw little green shoots of crocuses and hyacinths already coming up. Although that likely won’t be good for the flowers if it turns much colder, it makes my garden look more cheerful, anyway.

I felt a bit more energetic today, just enough to turn that list into a blog post. The moral of the story—to the extent there is one—is that even when we’re feeling stuck, there are always bright little spots of new growth coming up somewhere. We just have to look around and find them!