Winter

When is it that we start to hate winter? As children, winter is one of our favorite times. We can build things in the snow, from snowmen, to bunkers and tunnels. We can go sledding, skiing, or snowboarding, depending on where we are and what we happen to have stored in the garage. For kinds, winter really is a wonderland. For adults, however, it seems to become a kind of frozen wasteland.

When do we make that transition? For me it seems to have happened overnight. Suddenly I am just that little bit too old to still be on the top of the snow hill with a sled, even under the pretense of just keeping an eye on the kids and making sure the hill isn't so steep it's dangerous. Shoveling has gone from being the most fun I could have all day to the worst chore I will somehow manage to avoid for as long as possible.

While winter has lost a great deal of its magic, it hasn't lost all of it's beauty. Something about it still appeals to me. Perhaps it is the nights where the thick snow clouds reflect the light from the city back down on us so it isn't quite so dark, and the snowflakes that are falling look like big, fluffy pieces of cotton batting. These nights, with their soft lighting and soft sparking snowflakes still bring me some sense of wonder, and I think I'm beginning to long for them.

Maybe what we need, all of us that think we have lost that love of winter we had as kids, is to stop while we are walking outside, caught in a snowstorm, and just turn our faces up to the sky. Let's do what we did as kids, close our eyes and try and catch a snowflake with our tongue. I think it's the little things that can make a difference in how you see the world.

Yes, shoveling is a chore. Winter is cold and unpleasant, but it is also a time for other things that are nice. This is the season for warm, home cooked meals, movies by the fire, and big, fuzzy slippers. I think maybe it's the little things that kids see and focus on that make winter so magical, so why can't we, as adults see them all like we used to?

I wish I knew. All I can do is try to see the good things in the winter, or at least focus on the warmth of summer, to get myself through the next few months. I hope we can all try to do the same.