Some people are affected by the dark days of the year. I am one of those, and I get a little depressed if I don’t pay attention. In January, February, and March it is all I can do to not just huddle around the tv with a bowl of soup and a book. It gets old after week 3 or 4, so I look for things to shake it up and keep me moving. When I need to shake it up, I do things on my winter’s joys list.
It isn’t always easy to fight myself in the winter and win, but since I am aware of my tendency to wallow, I evaluate often to make sure I am not dug in and sleeping the winter away. Just getting by is not a way to live.
With a winter’s joys list and resolve, I will have a better winter even when it gets dark early and is bone chillingly cold, and everything looks GRAY.
This year, I once again resolve to stir things up,
and live better in Winter.
To chase away the winter blues, here is my Winter’s Joy List in a poem
Colorful scarves and cable knit beanies,
long fireside chats, and stacks of reading.
Fair isle sweaters and mulling spices,
singing carols and apple cider,
Winter’s Joys are many in a poet’s heart.
Shopping for gifts, lacey wet snowflakes,
frosted windows, The Nutcracker Ballet,
you in the snow making snow angels with me.
There will be warm coats and sleigh rides
filling the daylight.
We’ll be ice skating,
drinking hot chocolate,
slowing life as it tries to rush and pass us by.
Evergreen boughs and long views of mountains,
snow covered landscapes,
there is something about them,
when we take those long drives to places we love.
When we get back, we’ll make soup,
hot cinnamon buns,
and mugs of coffee that steam.
Winter joys are the silver lining
in the long dark winter to me.
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