Winter in New England

The growing consensus among my fellow New Englanders...and most of the country in general, actually, seems to be this: O.V.E.R. Winter.  Personally, I'm not there yet; which is somewhat surprising given my extreme love of all things summer.  I will absolutely reach my breaking point (if I were a betting woman I'd look to sometime in mid-March) but for now I haven't quite hit the stir-crazy, spring fever, going to lose it if I see anymore snow tipping point that (let's be honest) all of us hit at some point during the winter months.  Maybe I've finally learned a thing or two about pacing myself through these New England winters, but as I hear co-workers complain about the weather or read yet another post on Facebook about friends can't handle another single inch of snow, I find myself looking to my page-a-day calendar on my desk and thinking, "It's February 11th, gang.  What else do you expect?"

Part of what's been helping me these past few months are my usual winter tricks of the trade.  There are good books to curl up with, plenty of TV to catch up on, the Olympics (!) and of course, Oscar nominated films to see by the boatload.  (12 Years A Slave is my current pick and choice for Best Picture.  It's amazing, heartbreaking, enthralling, and wonderfully done.  Not the most uplifting, leaves you in a feel good state sort of movie, but worth the $12 at the theater, I promise.)  I've been working hard to keep my yoga routine up - even when it is so frigid I'd give anything to have some underground tunnel to walk through to get to and from the studio to my apartment - which has kept the blood flowing and in many ways helped my sanity as well as the added bonus of not feeling too much like the bump on a log we can sometimes feel like in mid-winter.  Of course, there are little graces to observe and remember, like the fact that when I leave work at the end of the day now it isn't utterly pitch black dark outside; the sun is lingering a touch longer ever so slightly these days and for that I'm grateful.

I must admit that this year I've been quite into the hibernation period that winter lends us each year.  For when the weather is nice, I *must* get outside and do all the things.  I feel this sense of urgency to stockpile my use of our good weather days, to get the absolute most out of them that I can.  And while that is wonderful and lovely and good, it does get a tiny bit exhausting.  These days I'm appreciating the fact that the winter forces us to slow down, to stay inside, to crave an extra hour of sleep or two.  When the weather demands we lay low, when a snow day is forced upon us and we spend all day in our flannel PJs drinking hot chocolate?  Well, that's not exactly a bad thing to savor now and then.   

On Sunday afternoon, I drove down to visit friends that moved to a town about thirty minutes outside of the city a couple of years ago.  For the price of some OJ and a bottle of champagne for mimosas, they cooked a quiche, bought amazing bagels, and created a perfect homemade brunch spread.  These friends even invited me to bring a few loads of laundry along (an offer I did not refuse) and as my sheets and towels were washing, we lingered over our meal, swapping stories.  I got some quality time in with their beautiful little six month old girl and plenty of catch up time with Mom and Dad too.  It was a perfect winter Sunday, overcast and gray; the kind that invites the quiet, sort of lazy, lounging day we all usually need before we greet Monday morning.  When I said goodbye to my friends, I remarked what a nice feeling it was to know the three of us (plus baby girl!) could spend the day just like we did; perfectly at ease, comfortable, content...and not really doing much of anything.  My friend laughed and said, "you could have even taken a nap if you wanted to!"  To which I replied that I just might take her up on that offer the next time I visit.

When I think about some of my closest friends, I believe I would put them all in a certain perfect category.  You know the one I'm talking about.  How does that sentiment go exactly?  The one where you can spend an entire afternoon together, without a word, and walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you had all day.

We are rounding the bend with this winter of 2014; the fact that our days are growing longer proves it.  So we'll take a deep breath, stock up on more milk, bread, and eggs before the next big snowstorm, and move on through this season day by day.  We'll make it through.  We always do.