Thoughts On Winter

It is now cold. It hasn’t been. We’ve been spared up until recently. But now, winter as we know it has arrived and is settling in, and behaving as it should. For the first time this season, the wood pile is showing signs of our frequent hauls, the animal’s water buckets freeze several times throughout the day, and the car engines groan when we start them. I was starting to worry that winter had passed us by. I’m sorry that I had to say that. You’re probably wondering what kind of person would cheer on the cold, the snow, the ice. Well, that ‘kind’ of person seems to be me, I love winter. It’s o.k. if you think this is weird ( I’m certain I’ve been considered a lot worse), but as this season has ticked by with its balmy weather and high temperatures, I have had this gnawing feeling that winter, real winter, wouldn’t show up. What about ice fishing?? So far, the annual ice fishing derby has had to be postponed twice for fear that the ice wasn’t thick enough. Not Right!
Pond hockey? Those days in mid-January when you gather up a bunch of skaters and assorted sticks and head down to Kingdom pond for a few lively games, we can’t miss that! And let me just say, that no winter would be complete without a ferocious ride through the sheep fields on our flexible flyers. Then there’s knitting, spinning, soup making, and all of the reading to consider. A very long list of activity, restorative activity that is, to be enjoyed during the cold winter months.
I know winter can pose some problems and inconveniences. The traveling can be treacherous. Pipes may freeze. The snow and ice can accumulate on the rooftops and cause problems. Then there’s the possible threat to the landscape when ice or heavy snow builds up and damages trees and shrubs. We deal with these too and groan along with everyone else when these situations arise. However, in my little ‘I love winter’ heart, I’m taking it all in stride. Accepting winter for what it is, brutal sometimes, difficult, asking us to rely on our hardier selves and brave the cold, snow, and ice.
How do you survive the winter? With cheer or with dread? Or maybe a little of both? Many of my friends say I have no business promoting the greater aspects of winter, they suspect that I may have been a reindeer herder in Siberia during a past life, and this distant life keeps creeping in when the sun is at the southernmost point of its journey. Maybe. I suppose anything is possible, and so, please bear with me as I enjoy my ample dose of winter! I’ll leave you, as I go out to stomp on the bottoms of frozen water buckets, with this poem by Wendell Berry…..

“The Cold”, by Wendell Berry

How exactly good it is
to know myself
in the solitude of winter,

my body containing its own
warmth, divided from all
by the cold; and to go

separate and sure
among the trees cleanly
divided, thinking of you

perfect too in your solitude,
your life withdrawn into
your own keeping

-to be clear, poised
in perfect self-suspension
toward you, as though frozen.

And having known fully the
goodness of that, it will be
good also to melt.