Cold Snap

Since Christmas, we’ve been in the grip of a serious cold snap, with day after day of temperatures that don’t rise above freezing.  Lows have been in the teens and are headed to the single digits and below zero for the coming weekend.  Winter days like this are not rare, though the duration of this run of frigid temperatures is rather unusual.  Today, a blizzard is added to the mix, as if to put an exclamation mark on the enduring icy chill.  

Whereas regular weather is an afterthought (do I need a rain coat today?), cold like this has a tendency to be the focus of the day.  Stepping out on the porch demands gloves and hats, cars need time to warm up,  phones need charging before we venture out for a drive.  I check the steam radiators in the house to make sure they are chirping along and I am grateful for cozy slippers and warm down comforters.  Sunlight makes it nicer.  I am a cold-hardy kind of girl, so I get out my hats, scarves, gloves, and wool sweaters to face the chill.  I make pots of soup for supper; I drink mug after mug of steaming hot tea.  Most of all, I try to simply face up to the cold and rather than dread stepping outside, I pull on my coat and just do it.  

But even the cold-hardy can grow weary of these frigid days.  I remind myself that the bone-chilling cold days makes the warm and easy days of Spring and Summer that much sweeter.  When they arrive, they will feel earned; a reward for enduring and coping with the chill.  Each week we spend in frigid days seems like time banked for a flip flop reward of a day.

That’s happy!