Well, winter has spoken, and her official reign doesn’t even begin for another two weeks.

I love winter. I really do.

When I am indoors, curled up under a pile of blankets in our cozy little cottage, with the Christmas trees aglow.

Not bundling up so much that I look like Ralphie’s little brother in his snowsuit on “A Christmas Story.” And not wearing myself out trudging through snow and ice doing typical daily errands.

Nor am I a big fan of removing snow from my car and scraping the windows while my car warms up when the temperature is in the single digits.

This past week, the responsibilities of being mom to a nearly 12-year-old black Labrador have been bone chilling. Zeke seems to have forgotten what snow is, and since he finds it more challenging to settle on a good spot where he usually does his business, he now drags me all the way to the other side of the backyard to get the job done. Thank God my husband has shoveled paths in the snow for this reason.

With all of that being said, I love that winter offers us all an opportunity, should we choose to accept it, for the rest our bodies, minds and spirits need.

The animal kingdom, by instinct, goes into hibernation this time of year. Though we are more highly evolved creatures (sometimes, I wonder about that), we are no different in needing that physical rest. And yet, many of us try to resist it by continuing with our usual pace.

There is a reason why the pre-Christmas season can be especially exhausting when our calendars our filled with decorating, social engagements, shopping, wrapping gifts, baking and more.

We aren’t supposed to be moving this fast and doing so much this time of year, and the wisdom inscribed in our bodies knows it.

Winter, while important for physical restoration, is essential for us on a spiritual level.

It is during winter that we allow ourselves to not know what the future holds. It is during winter that despite not knowing what the future holds, we trust that deep within we are being prepared for the future, and that whatever it does offer, we will be able to meet it ready, refreshed and renewed.

This past week, my mom and I drove to Toluca, the same route we have driven my entire life to visit relatives. I know the landscape well through all four seasons. The day was clear and the fields were white with snow, so visibility seemed to stretch on forever.

This being one of my first real outings since last week’s snowfall, the sheer spaciousness through which we drove was medicine for my soul. It was as though I could feel that spaciousness open up inside me, too. That spaciousness inside and out is something that can’t be described, only experienced.

For someone like me, who thrives on open space, this trip on a route I’ve driven hundreds of times, was certainly a spiritual experience.

I have said this before and I will say it again: the infinite spaciousness we experience on the outside, even though it is finite to our senses, is symbolic of the infinite spaciousness of our spiritual hearts.

Our hearts hold the entirety of our lives, all of our experiences. And spiritually, our hearts are limitless. They are where the Divine makes its home, and this awareness is inscribed in our hearts, by the Divine.

Underneath all of the noise of our everyday lives, when we give ourselves the physical and spiritual space we need, we remember this reality.

It is what St. Augustine meant when he wrote “our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O God.”

When we turn down the noise and slow down the activity, we remember from where we came and to whom we belong.

And, that is exactly what winter is for.

Rest and remembering.

SPIRIT MATTERS is a weekly column by Jerrilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33@yahoo.com.