I mean - seriously - if you have to spend 4-6 months living in a New England Winter, then at least catch some JOY while you're there. In the "old" days, i.e., DINK days - that would be the Double Income No Kids days - we were skiers. We'd either leave after work on a Friday and head to Vermont or get up early on Sat. and be skiing at Okemo or Killington by 9:30am. That was a Winter celebration! And most Winters we would take a week off and head to the slopes for at least 3 or 4 days of hardcore skiing.
But alas - sigh - 3 kids suck up your skiing money regularly. I mean seriously? It probably would cost $300-$500/day for my whole family to ski. No one owns skis - hence RENT. The kids don't know how - can you say lessons? Shall we discuss lift tickets?
So no - not skiing soon.
My heart starts to race, a smile lights up my face...it's a bit like the month before Christmas when I was a kid. I just get SO excited!!! But I have to keep it a secret because so many people get MAD! LOL!!!!
I can't explain it. I LOVE SNOW.
I'm sure you're grumbling. "Yea - she owns a gym in her house. She doesn't have to get in a car and battle the commute."
Actually? I "battled" the commute for 15 years. I was a seasoned warrior because I managed a huge staff in a law firm 50 miles from home. When the calls came in on a snowy weekday morning - "I can't come in due to snow", the only weapon I had was "I drove 50 miles in it. I think you can drive 4 miles". I think I may have missed a few days due to snow but they were far and few between. I remember driving home late one night after work in like 2 feet of snow uphill both ways and the state roads I drove were not even plowed. So I know about driving in the snow.
Now I should say - I have the best husband who is a master shoveler - so I don't shovel much unless it's a mammoth blizzard so I DO understand that pain. But I actually enjoy shoveling when I do it. I guess I can give you some empathy about that subject as the reason you are so miserable in the winter.
But the take home here is this: The only one you are fighting when you are miserable - be it snow or anything else that distresses you - is YOU. If you are arguing with reality it's like trying to teach a cat to bark.
Wanting reality to be different than what it is, is hopeless. It's SNOWING!!!! Light a fire, read a book, make stew, give yourself permission to do nothing if you are lucky enough. If not, is being bitchy going to stop the snow from falling? Is complaining going to bring out the sunshine? When have you ever been successful with that thinking?? You're arguing with "what is".
Stop arguing with YOU and turn your thoughts to catching a wisp of JOY. Look what my friend George Savic does to catch JOY. (who - btw - owns the rights to my beautiful header shot up above on this blog)
Snaps a shot of that fat snowy bird.
Photographs a crisp, red hot sunrise on one of those zero degree mornings.
Go to a movie! Notice the beauty of the icicles forming off the eaves of your house.
Make a Chicken Pot Pie!
Do SOMETHING to feel the JOY and stop the madness of those negative thoughts!
Turn it around with JOY. Even if it's just for a minute. The hangover of JOY lasts - trust me.
Speaking of snowy birds - yesterday when my daughter and I were holed up in the house because she was sick and we were forced ALL DAY to watch live men's skating at the Olympics, she leaped off the couch yelling, "LOOK!!!!" Well I tried to get some shots off with my cell and they didn't come out great - but look what sat in a pine in front of our house hunting for poor innocent birds at our bird feeder! It was - for lack of a better word - majestic. This beautiful red tailed hawk. Not to bore you but...it was JOY ful seeing him this close.
Isn't he a BEAUT?! We were so excited!!!!
So git out there and catch some!
Well what do you know about that? Look what's outside my window today...
That would be snow JOY as in -- it's SNOWING JOY!
I. am. SO. with. you. on. this!!!. I LOVE SNOW TOO!!!!!!! Always have, always will (growing up in So. Cal. likely gives me more of an appreciation of it and the other 3 seasonal effects one experiences here in New England). I even shovel it at times. I actually LIKE shoveling snow at NIGHT, when it is quiet and peaceful and I can get into the rhythm.... Yes, my muscles ache afterwards and sometimes my back goes out, but it's so meditative (unless it's really heavy and there's so much of it that it's hard to throw it up high). And there's nothin' like sitting inside in front of the wood-stove, watching the birds in the snow! I love the challenge of capturing them with a click of my shutter. Oh, yeah, Joey. I so get this JOY you feel. I, too, get all excited when the forecast is snow. But unlike you, I don't feel any joy driving in it - I think it's the perceived ice under the snow that freaks me out. Now if only I could get into that JOY groove in a few months, when the heat and humidity hit....and the bugs come out, the fake tan sweats off, the hair straightener doesn't work, the electric bills soar, etc. :-)
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