Winter Blahs

Every year I hate winter just a little bit more. It's cold. It's dark. It's snowy and slippery. It's really just a pain. Just going outside becomes a production. Going outside is no longer spontaneous, it's planned. Every morning I bundle up and trudge to the bus stop along the same path I would skip down in the summer. My head is bent, partly to keep the wind out of my eyes and partly to make sure I don't step on a patch of ice and inadvertently kill myself.

Today as I got on the bus to go home, I noted that it was still light out, something I was extremely grateful for. Lately when I've been on the bus I've been reading a book or listening to a podcast. Today, I looked out the window. Maybe it was because I sat on a different side of the bus than I usually do, or maybe it was thanks to the sunshine, or maybe I am just sick of being bundled up and shut off from the world. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed my bus ride much more. Even sitting in traffic wasn't that bad.

Anyway, I have about a five block walk home on a somewhat busy street. Every day as I'm walking home I hear the steady whoosh of cars driving past. Today I walked about a block and then there was silence. Usually when I think about winter I feel quiet. There aren't kids playing, dogs outside barking, lawn mowers, or any other sounds of life. Usually I think it seems like more of a depressing sort of quiet. Today, though, it was a peaceful quiet. And even though the silence was only a few moments, I heard things. (Don't worry, not in my head...) I heard a bird chirping, and I heard my feet walking, and I heard the beeping of the gas pump a couple of blocks away. And then the cars started whooshing past again.

It was just one moment, but that's all it took for me to remember that everything has its own beauty. Winter is a quiet season, but in the quiet maybe we can hear things we wouldn't normally hear. Today, I started to like winter just a little bit more.