home & hearth

on candles, winter rituals around the world, and the unrelenting charm of the archetypal homestead

controversial opinion, i know, but winter is my favorite season. it was my favorite season in south carolina when winter really just meant what most people call fall, and it’s still my favorite season in chicago when winter means what most people call circumstances in a hallmark movie that keep an uptight businesswoman trapped in a log cabin with a muscular but non-threatening hometown boy enamored with the true spirit of christmas. part of what i like about winter is the invitation to draw inward – to take count of your life, your relationships, your environment, and shelter against the things that matter most to you. maybe it’s the overwhelming presence of earth signs in my chart (can you imagine a perfumed zodiac… just added this to my todo list), but what often matters most to me is a sense of stability: emotionally in the form of consistent, reliable comforts, and practically, in the form of ritualized behavior that defines how people transform a season historically filled with danger and uncertainty into something beautiful.