A Cure For The Winter Blues

You look outside, there’s a thick coating of fresh, clean, white snow. The sun is lazily stretching above the horizon and a gentle breeze picks up, blowing a few flakes of snow in front of the sun so it looks like glitter, sparkling all around in a magical just-for-you snow globe. You take a deep breath and feel the crisp, cool air fill your lungs. Your toes are a little chilled and wiggle a bit in your slippers as you hug your sweater a little tighter and reach for that hot mug of coffee. Curling up in your chair you think to yourself, why can’t every winter morning feel like this?

The glittering snow, the fresh clean air, the warm coffee, slippers and sweater. Somehow they seem ok, right? We’re so funny sometimes.. one day the outside world looks like a winter wonderland, the next it looks like hours of snow blowing and shoveling, sweating and freezing simultaneously, trying to finish the outdoor chores in those few precious hours of daylight.

We can be kind of all-or-nothing.. Either winter sucks or it’s beautiful. And the best part? We can easily go from, “Look at the beautiful, glittery snow!” to “Look at all the work I have to get done out there!” It’s so easy to transition from Happy to disheartened. It hardly takes any effort to ruin a day. But to actually start shoveling the snow and train our minds to see the beauty in it at the same time.. boy that takes some effort. We feel ourselves resisting the positivity with every scoop of the shovel.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no happy-go-lucky type. Just this week I took a tumble down the stairs… twisted my ankle pretty bad.. I mean really bad, the most pain I’ve experienced in 15 years. Seriously, dude. I’m in my thirties, I’m certified in yoga, I consider myself a fairly “present-in-the-moment” person with above average balance abilities. And. I. Fell. Down. The. Bad. Words. Stairs. As much pain and discomfort as I’ve been in, I think nothing is worse than the embarrassment. So naturally, I thought I should share it with the world.

For the last few days, I’ve had to rest. No usual yoga, no snowshoeing, no walking in the winter wonderland, no cooking or even ice-cream scooping! (poor photographer..) And surprise! I have felt pretty down.. disappointed in life and myself. Then, looking out of our bedroom window this morning, at the sea smoke wisping it’s way above our Lake, I realized I’m not happy. And my next thought was, that is entirely my choice. Because, would you look at that sunrise?!

The sun lights up the sea smoke in such a cool, unique way. This is something you only see when it’s cold outside. I felt like I was given a chance, to ignore the beauty or embrace it. If I can’t be up and running around (haha.. like I was ever a runner..) I could sit and enjoy the view. Even as I type this I’m looking at the Cedar trees covered in snow, globes of chunky, white snow that even makes me want to giggle a little. It looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Sure, there aren’t roses to stop and smell in a Northland Winter… but there is usually a little snow. So maybe we can all learn from Lorelai Gilmore, “I smell snow!”

Stay, warm my friends. Drive slow and watch out for deer.

Kara