Bring It On Baby!!!

 

Winter is upon us as we all can feel if not see.  This is the time of year when so many are moaning and groaning about the cold, about the dark, about the snow, as though there is no beauty and grandeur in the season.  In my exercise class there are many who simply disappear for a good portion of the season.  It is too cold.  They don’t want to deal with the roads.  They are afraid to fall on slippery sidewalks, on and on ad nauseam. 

Not me!!  This along with the other three seasons is one of my favorites.  I love them all!!!!  Winter brings with her snowmen, brisk walks in the woods, snow angels, Orion in the night sky, snow ball fights, cross country skiing, reading fantastic books by a roaring fireplace with a hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps in hand. 

The only aspect of winter that I do not enjoy here in Ohio are the gray skies.  We can go weeks on end without a glimmer of the sun.  It is one of the many reasons I always loved skiing in Colorado ….. you could almost always count on gorgeous, bright blue skies in the winter. 

My family moved to Florida in 1957 when I was 9 years old.  As a person who is prone to very vivid, memorable dreams, one such dream I remember from that year was making a snow angel in the backyard of my Ohio home.  I woke up from that dream very confused as to where I was.  I could still feel the snow on my hands. 

I moved back to Ohio two years after high school graduation, 1968, the only one in my family to do so.  The strings from my heart to that state were very strong.  I moved back in the Spring, and actually looked forward to Winter, several months off. It lived up to my memories.

Five years later I moved to Fairbanks, Alaska.  Wow, for a winter lover it was paradise.  Yes, the nights were very long, but the skies were clear and the night skies were incredible in a town, at that time, not known for light pollution.  There were skiing trips, snowmobile rides, mad dashes from the steam yurt to snow banks, and many a night sitting around roaring fires enjoying the company of good friends. 

The most extreme cold I’ve ever experienced was in Fairbanks, second winter, -60.  Now that is cold.  Cars don’t work, pipes, even in Fairbanks, freeze, and thank God for bars that stay open until 4 AM.  As the old song goes, “Those were the days my friend…”

Three years later I was back in Cincinnati, again, those heart strings never gave up.  It was the winter of 1976-77, the coldest in many years in Cincinnati, and I swear, I thought I had somehow been zapped back to Fairbanks.  Even the Ohio River froze over, that’s how cold it was.  You could drive across it as long as the cops didn’t catch you.

Many years ago I was wandering through a local library looking for something to read.  I checked out a book that was just a random selection and there is one section of the book I remember really well....which is pertinent to the topic at hand.  

The chapter was describing the process that young Indian boys went through the initiation process of becoming a young man.  Part of the process included a week out in the winter wilderness with nothing but their clothes, a bow and arrows and that was all.  If they survived the winter for a week on their own, creating their own housing, finding their own food and finding their way back to their camp, that was one step toward manhood.  The thing that really struck me in that section was how the key to surviving was to not fight the cold.  The writer of the narrative described how to relax into the cold and not allow it to become a conscious enemy to survival.  For whatever reason, that description has stayed with me.

It's not to say that I don't get cold from time to time....but typically I don't experience coldness as quickly as my friends, and sometimes not at all.  I don't fight the cold, I guess I sort of lean into it.

So, am I relishing the thought of Winter Solstice, holiday seasons, more walks in the woods and everything else??  You bet I am.  Bring it on Baby, I’m ready!!!!