From Surviving to Celebrating Winter
Gray
That one word sums up winter in southern Ohio. The sky is overcast, the ground is damp and soggy, the trees colorless after shedding their leaves. On the occasion of a rare snowfall, the white is stunning and beautiful but short-lived, quickly melting into a mushy mess that lays in the dark and dirty piles it was plowed into.
The festivities and warmth of the holiday season have passed us by, leaving our lives quiet. The world outside is stark and bleak without the holiday decorations to soften it. We shift from celebrating to surviving these cold, dark months until the Earth renews itself again in spring.
The introvert in me used to love the excuse to hole up, read books and shun the outside world. While that was wonderful, something was missing. The lack of movement, fresh air, and contact with the Earth left me groggy and tired come March. Hibernation may be great for some animals, but I needed something else.
I decided to stop looking at winter as something that I needed to fight through. I wouldn’t shore up my defenses and let my soul go dormant. I would start embracing the cold and learning to find the light in the gray.
