December is barely here and snow came with it!

Every year, the very first snow is a momentous occasion.

It is always a big surprise that it’s here. I am not sure why. I mean, we live in the upper latitudes, and it comes every single year. So what is so unexpected about it that we seem to be taken with surprise? 

Or maybe more than surprise, it is the feeling of finally giving in- like, oh well, I guess it’s finally winter. And the start of the hibernation season. No more frolicking around in the open, now it’s more about strategies of surviving outside. 

Winter surely is a more planned time of the year. The harder conditions makes sure we know what we are doing. It’s not a season the human body was made to endure at such extremes. We are monkeys after all. And hairless at that! 

But now that winter is here, well, I guess it’s time to embrace the season, and make the best of it. Is it surprising that the year’s biggest celebrations are reserved for the year’s hardest time to be? When it’s the darkest outside, and our instinct is to hibernate and wallow in our own lives’ minutiae? 

Now that winter is here, and by that I mean snow is here, I plan to yes, hibernate a whole lot more at home- it’s a cozy place to be.

Being home means to enjoy the homey cozy things. Like movies and board games. Like catching up with friends, and reading more. Like making art, like cooking interesting things.

But I do love the wild spaces in winter too. The magical qualities they seem to acquire in their bareness and quiet. The tilt of the light that paints everything golden. The sweet sound of bird calls that rings clear in the openness of the forest.

Between these two options that are mine, I plan to make this winter a little more welcome than is my first instinct when the season first arrives.

I can either enjoy it or endure it…

Making good memories along the path of these next few months is definitely the better way to walk the walk of life.