Today, December 21st, the winter solstice arrives. It’s the darkest day of the year, when our ancestors had no choice but to stop. Not because they were lazy or unambitious, but because the world itself demanded it. Short days, long nights, and the simple biological truth that human beings cannot extract indefinitely without breaking.

They didn’t call it “work-life balance.” They called it survival.

Somewhere along the way, we convinced ourselves we’d evolved past this. That electric lights and global markets meant we could override millions of years of rhythm. That stopping was weakness. That pause was lost profit.

I spent decades in that mythology. Vowing to ultimately find a better way. Not a perfect way. Just better.

The companies I work with now, the ones building something meant to last, they understand what my corporate self refused to see:
• Deepening requires stopping.
• Nurturing requires space.
• Legacy requires letting the soil rest.
This isn’t poetry. It’s practical biology applied to business.

So here’s my gift to you this week. Permission. Whatever you’re not finishing this year can wait. Whatever goal feels urgent can pause. Whatever voice is telling you that stopping means falling behind is selling you the same mythology that nearly destroyed my own company.

The solstice happened. The darkness came. And now, slowly, the light returns.
Not because anyone pushed harder. But because the world knows how to renew itself when given space to do so.

From my house to yours. May you find that space this year.