Have you ever felt like the world around you has turned completely cold? Sometimes, life hits us with a season that feels like a long, biting winter. It is that heavy, frozen period where hope seems buried under layers of snow, and every breath feels like a struggle against the chill. Albert Camus captured this feeling so beautifully when he spoke about finding an invincible summer within ourselves. To me, this means that even when our external circumstances are bleak, there is a core part of our spirit that remains untouched by the frost, a warmth that can never be extinguished if we learn how to tend to it.

In our everyday lives, these winters show up in many forms. It might be the quiet loneliness after a breakup, the crushing weight of a job loss, or just those long stretches of burnout where you feel like you have nothing left to give. During these times, it is so easy to believe that the cold is all there is. We start to identify with the frost, thinking that our sadness or our exhaustion is our entire identity. But the magic happens when we realize that the cold is just a season, and the warmth is our true nature.

I remember a time when I felt particularly lost, much like a little duck lost in a blizzard. I had faced a series of setbacks that made me want to retreat into my shell and never come out. I felt dim and frozen. But slowly, through small acts of kindness to myself—like enjoying a warm cup of tea or sitting in the sun for just five minutes—I began to feel a tiny spark. I realized that the warmth wasn't something I had to find in the world; it was something I had to nurture inside. I started to realize that my resilience was my own private summer, waiting for me to acknowledge it.

This doesn't mean we ignore the winter or pretend the snow isn't there. It means we acknowledge the chill but refuse to let it settle in our hearts. We can learn to carry our own sunlight with us, even when the sky is grey. It is about building that inner strength, that invincible warmth, through self-compassion and persistence.

Today, I want to encourage you to look inward. If you are in a cold season right now, take a moment to breathe and check in with your inner warmth. What is one small thing you can do to feed your inner summer today? Even a tiny ember can start a beautiful fire.