Wednesday's Words for December 9, 2009

I try to keep a good attitude about winter, I really do. The same could be said of Christmas. I love Christmas, the hope and the message of it. Not the commercialism, not the pressure to spend money. Jesus is the reason for the season. But some folks don’t get that. So I’m thinking of trying to start a new movement. I’ll call it Christmas: spend time, not money.

Winter is that six month period in Southern Ontario, Canada, from October the first to March the 31st. Now the powers that be would have us believe that winter is in fact only three months long, and is also, in fact, of equal duration as are the other alleged three seasons—spring, summer, and fall.

Good attitude notwithstanding, I know better. The cold usually arrives in the first week of October. Some people think they are fooling the rest of us when they proclaim the weather “crisp”, instead of “cold”. I’ve been told recently that when dealing with those who are seriously deluded, it’s best not to challenge the delusion. Enough said about “crisp”.

I understand and accept there are people whose livelihood depends on the snow falling each year. Not just those whose businesses revolve around winter, but the guy down the street who puts that snow plow on the front of his pickup truck in early October, with the hopes of making a few extra dollars for his family. I especially understand that farmers count on a good snow fall to help them in the spring, to make the ground richly moist so that their plantings prosper. I’m all for that.

I believe it is indicative of a good attitude that I accept these things, and the necessity for a winter season (although they seem to do well enough without it in Florida, but I digress). I don’t believe that I am obliged in any way, shape, or form, to like it.

I have always felt this way, although I have in the past proven myself more than capable of ignoring my distaste for the season. One year when my kids were small and we lived out in the country on a rather large piece of land that to this day I regret selling, I made them a skating rink. This making necessitated me going outside each afternoon for several weeks (I was not working at the time) and using my garden hose that was really quite long, to coat the designated area with a fine spray of water. I then of course had to bring that hose indoors, which meant rolling it slowly to ensure the water left in it dribbled on the ground and not on my floors.
When they would use the rink after school and on weekends, I often had to repair the ice by mixing up a “sludge” of snow and water to fill in the chips and cracks. Then of course, I would spray it again and again.

We still had a chunk of that ice in the field in May of that year.

I also, when the children were smaller, enjoyed that part of winter wherein the father of the brood would take all three of them tobogganing for an entire two hours, thus blessing me with that rare gift of quiet time. I did my part. When they came home, all rosy cheeks and runny noses, I would have hot cocoa waiting for them.

I suppose you’re wondering about the reason for this rant this far into the winter season. Well, it’s really quite simple. The weather has finally caught up with the calendar.

Until last weekend, the temperatures were mild enough that my winter coat could be left on the peg in favor of a heavy sweater, and my boots, though dusted off and ready, stood idly waiting.

But now it’s cold. And I awoke to snow on the ground. And I have therefore been reminded that I really, really don’t like winter.
Only sixteen weeks until spring.

Love,
Morgan
Gifts Galore and a Stellar Cast!
Christmas with Morgan Ashbury and Friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyygFyEPqkI