Why We Need Winter

February is a weary time of year. The sun escapes us, the cold wind bites everytime we go outside. The most cheerful days are shattered by the reminder of the bitterness, the deepest darkness before the thaw of spring shakes us awake. It’s easy to hate a season that is so unabashed in throwing its self around like this. My province (Ontario) even celebrates two holidays (only one you actually get off work), in part to help get you through these 28/29 awful days. To put it poetically, February is the worst.

And I think that’s a good thing.

Humanity as a whole, especially in the Western world, is obsessed with avoiding discomfort. Our quest is always for a faster route, a tool that will make things easier, a tastier fried-chicken. When are consumed with comfort, with placating our simplest urges with as much endorphin-boosting swiftness, we have lost the ability to deal with difficulty. When life’s harshest winters hit, we cower and hide. I don’t think we need to dive headlong into pain on purpose or cause it for giggles, but it does seem like complaining about the weather is symptom of a deeper issue. We just don’t like it when darkness creeps into our lives and so rather than wrestle with the questions, the character that is formed in this cold fire, we run back to comfort via the quickest route. And it robs us of our ability to make meaning and find hope in the darkness. We think Hope instead comes from looking away (often back or forward) to a time when things will be better. And hopefully, we don’t have to wait long for it. But this isn’t true hope but a diversion. All is does is distract us from the truth of our current surroundings. It can help for a time but it evaporates without really leaving a mark on us. Real hope comes from seeing what suffering is creating in you, of how if you allow it to, it can shape you and you can choose to draw meaning out of it.

Rather than run from this season, we need to use it reflect on our own darkness. We need to look at that internal bitterness that often manifests itself in pettiness, greed, and foolish anger. How must we thaw out our the coldest parts of us? How must we continue to search through the bleakest times for beauty, truth, and justice? If live was always room temperature, so would life be — bland and meaningless.

So throw on a toque, some wool socks, and brave the cold. And know that winter will thaw, and that even on the coldest days, the sun is still there.