Endurance

I talk about the weather far too much, but apparently it's all around me. Since I'm one of those "out of sight, out of mind" people and it's rarely out of sight, obsession is the order of the day. Plus, if you're an extrovert, you can start any conversation, be it friend, stranger, even enemy, with whatever's going on outside. I can just imagine two warriors stopping mid-fight, to save their coiffures from the rain. Not really, but it's a fun image.

This part of winter, to me, is the pit of despair. In Georgia, this is our winter cycle: two weeks of cold and rain (lots and lots of rain), then two to three days of spring. Repeat. If you have arthritis, you agonize and know what's coming. Usually around mid-January or thereabouts, we'll have a "winter storm" which especially involves emptying out all stores of bread and milk. If the storm actually happens, it can be very bothersome. Because it's so wet, ice covers everything in sight, trees (especially pines) fall and people start losing their minds. Yankees that are new to the South (or particularly the ones that don't live here) will sit in judgement because of our mass neurotic panic attack. The electricity goes out, the roads empty (hopefully) and we sit around shivering while we drink our milk and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We have "ice storm babies" nine months later. I have a few grandchildren with that moniker attached. That's the good part. The other good part is that winter is short here. I cannot imagine living where the summers are just a blip on the radar, even though ours can be hellish. I finally figured out that all those Southern Living party ideas, though adorable, are only worked out in the spring and fall (when pollen and ragweed choke us to death anyhow, but it's better than the fires of Mordor in July). 

I know it sounds sad and hopeless, our weather, but it's really not. The earth and all in it are sort-of cracked, and us humans like to complain and find the bottom side of the barrel. The turning of the seasons is God's way of teaching us patience as well as helping us to know that we're not really in charge. As I feel the winter weighing on me as heavy as lead right now, I also know it's good to be quiet and hunker down with this season of contemplation. Calm down, store up, slow the wheel, plan, read a book, pet my dog.