I Get Low Right About Now Every Year.

I get low right about now every year.

I’ve often wondered if it was simply the cold weather. Being a Southerner, I don’t take kindly to frost. Or maybe the cold holds me back from walking as often, or even feeling motivated to do so. Or is it the adrenalin hangover after the hustle and bustle and the highs of the holidays? Maybe the fact that I am forced to sit down and waste an entire day with year end tax stuff. God, that can certainly kill a spirit! All I know is that I wrestle with this low at the start of every year.

It was during this time in 2011 that I, during one of my deepest lows, blindly enrolled in a 30-day class in New York City. In 2016, during this January funk, I bought a plane ticket to Shanghai, and the next January I booked a writing retreat in Montana. I told no one because each time they seemed like such harebrained ideas. How I’d pull them off seemed impossible but I held the craziness close to me, each giving me something to dream about during these low spots.

As my energy healer friend Mindy tells me, you must honor your lows. Like an ocean wave, you must ebb to flow. And how wise of her.

Never in 2011 would I have imagined how a crazy 30-walk across Manhattan would have catapulted my career. Never did I imagine that simply having a plane ticket to a new place, far, far away, would give me something to learn about, and a challenge to aim for. And never would I have seen my writing world fling open when I booked the Haven retreat.

Yep, Mindy, I am finally beginning to understand your advice. I no longer wallow in the depths of January or in the cold or boredom. I now do something about it. I honor it and the dream it produces.

So to that I ask, “Where should I go next?”

27 Comments
  • Laura
    Posted at 13:40h, 03 February

    There are treasures in the darkness. So important to honor the lows and celebrate the highs. Love this!

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 16:43h, 03 February

      Oh, we should know, right! It’s just hard to remember.

  • Mary Palmer
    Posted at 05:37h, 04 February

    Hey Lisa,
    I have truly enjoyed exploring different parts of the world through your lens. I think you are an incredibly courageous and strong woman. As I read “The Adventures of Lisa,” my mind often takes me to a place of reflections on what was God thinking when he created so many diverse cultures, many times who are at senseless odds with each other. Then I am taken to that place of our friendship and how it has grown by simply sitting around a table or kicked back in a lounger with glass in hand, of course and just listening to each other about our world and our story. Keep the dream alive, keep traveling, and keep “journaling” for all of us. Be high my friend. A historical walk of the start of each continent like Africa perhaps? Love You.

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 17:51h, 04 February

      You are so dear, my friend. We need to walk another mile of the Beltline together. That walking project still gnaws at me.

  • linda mangold
    Posted at 06:26h, 04 February

    Lisa, we are going to Cuba in a few days. We are traveling there on a cruise so our time will be very limited but I imagine a lengthier stay would be interesting. Also I went to Krakow Poland and loved it. Spain and all the old castles turned into hotels and little out of the way towns would be interesting too.

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 17:50h, 04 February

      Oh, Cuba’s high on my list. Always had intrigued me. Are you shipping out of Mobile?

  • Georganne
    Posted at 08:34h, 04 February
  • Allison
    Posted at 08:45h, 04 February

    Go wiith me on the St. James Costa Rica mission trip in June!

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 17:49h, 04 February

      You’re going? Hmmmm. Don’t tempt me.

  • Janis
    Posted at 09:06h, 04 February

    How clever to figure this out! 2017 wasn’t a great year for me but once I sat down and re-scheduled a trip to Glacier National PArk, I just felt so much better. Thanks for sharing your wonderful thoughts!

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 17:49h, 04 February

      You’re going to Glacier National Park??? That’s in Whitefish, where my writing retreat was held. I stayed downtown at a wonderful boutique hotel, the Firebrand…and had drinks at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake. Oh, how fun!!!!

  • Marjorie
    Posted at 16:05h, 04 February

    I agree with Mindy – to honor your lows. I’ve always loved the cold, dreary to some people months. To me it’s always been a time to be inside and get your house in order. Mother Nature forcing us to do so. To eat different foods and dishes we wouldn’t eat during the warm hot months. It’s like the word ” hygge” that we see everywhere now. And I guess getting our house in order is doing our taxes. Dull and a pain in the neck, but when it’s over you are free for another year!! I think you’ve done exactly the right things during this time: made plans to spread your wings!!! I’m envious!!!

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 17:44h, 04 February

      I had to get the true definition of your word…yes, it’s perfect! “Hygge” the Scandinavian word for a mood of coziness and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment.

  • Jeff Moseley
    Posted at 22:48h, 04 February

    Hi Lisa. New Orleans, 300 years old this year. No place else like it.

    All the best.

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 08:49h, 05 February

      Oh, I agree about New Orleans and the people are even more wonderful. I had the honor of touring the city with a group called NolaBound in 2012. 27 of us were invited to see the city and meet its leaders then to report our findings through social media. I fell in love with the city and the people and still stay in touch with many of them. You may be interested in what I wrote (click here). Yes, I could go back to New Orleans in a heartbeat.

  • Sally McClelland
    Posted at 13:16h, 05 February

    I actually don’t mind this time of year. Maybe it’s because I now have the proper clothes to deal with the cold weather and I have snow to cover up the dull drabness of dead/dormant vegetation and reflect the ambient light (plus seeing the animal tracks in it is cool).
    You can go walk anywhere you want – even down the street from you you’ll uncover cool and interesting stuff when you look closely. However, you need to come up to the cottage to do some writing – like your own little Canadian retreat.

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 08:38h, 06 February

      Oh, I don’t know how you do it in all that cold. But you’re so right about the ambient light…and the silence of snow is something I had never experienced until this year, first in Montana and then here in Atlanta. It actually snowed enough to cover the city in quiet! I may take you up on the cottage.

  • Renee
    Posted at 09:23h, 09 February

    Wow..I get this way around Jan and Feb…I would love to take a trip or join a class…but I lost my job and thus I am kinda stuck…although having said that I am looking at “what’s next”…and what I can do to get out of this rut…thanks for the inspiration…

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 12:37h, 09 February

      Oh, I really get the ‘stuck’ part. That’s where I was in 2011. My decision to take a 30-day course in NYC seemed so unattainable, but I made it work. If I can be of any help pushing you to take that leap, just let me know.

  • Connie McLeod
    Posted at 12:11h, 09 February

    I love this. Embrace the flaw, honor the obstacle!!

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 12:37h, 09 February

      Honoring that obstacle is tough. Phew. But once we jump over it, it sho’ feels good!

  • Rena
    Posted at 13:53h, 09 February

    What a lovely thought. I often plan vacations in February so that we have something to look forward to.

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 18:52h, 09 February

      This cold weather really gets to me. We had a lucky 60-degree day today. I am SO ready for spring!

  • Cyndi Buchanan
    Posted at 11:08h, 13 January

    This is so wonderful and inspirational. Way to take control of the low time in your life!

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 23:05h, 09 March

      Thank you! It was in the high 60s today…we’re almost there!

  • Rena
    Posted at 11:46h, 13 January

    I love this! I don’t often feel that way in January, but February brings the winter blues I call them. I have never done those things you mentioned but I do find when I’m planning a trip I am at my happiest. Since we’re planning our giant roadtrip in May I’m hoping I’ll be to busy to be down this year. I want to go to Ireland one day soon!

    • lisaweldon
      Posted at 23:04h, 09 March

      Let the virus subside, and then plan that trip to Ireland. Do it!