Why This Song Still Hits: A Therapist’s Reflection

Every year, this song resurfaces.
Not because we’re nostalgic for the 90s, though maybe that too, but because it captures something deeply human: the ache of a year that was heavier than we expected.

It puts words to things we often keep quiet:

  • the regrets we replay

  • the distance we don’t know how to bridge

  • the guilt we hold in our chest

  • the moments we wished we’d shown up differently

  • the longing that sits under our attempts to be “fine”

  • the deep desire for a better, truer year ahead

As a therapist, I think this song resonates because it allows us to be honest without collapsing into shame.
It lets us look at the year with clear eyes, no pretending, no decorating, and still find the ember of hope inside the mess.

It doesn’t demand that we tie anything up neatly.
It just acknowledges:
It’s been a long year.
You survived it.
And maybe something can shift.

As this year ends, you might gently consider:

  • What did you learn that you didn’t want to learn but needed to?

  • What patterns or distances are you ready to stop carrying?

  • What truth are you finally willing to name?

  • What tiny spark of hope is calling you forward?

Sometimes that spark is more than enough.

Wintering: The Emotional Seasons We Move Through

There’s a quiet emotional truth inside A Long December:
We are seasonal beings.

We move through cycles of closeness and distance, clarity and confusion, grief and renewal.
And yet many people judge themselves harshly for feeling slow, heavy, or reflective this time of year, as if emotional winter means they’ve failed.

But winter is not failure.
It’s invitation.

It’s the season where:

  • old regrets surface

  • quiet shame makes itself known

  • unmet needs rise to the surface

  • tired parts of us ask for warmth

  • we finally recognize the truth of what’s not working

  • we remember we’re human and finite

If December feels heavy or quiet, it may simply be signaling:
Something inside you needs gentleness rather than pressure.
Honesty rather than avoidance.
Warmth rather than self-criticism.

Let this be a month where you honor the season you’re in, not the one you think you’re “supposed” to be in.