Winter is death incarnate. Its bleak sullen skies and early sunsets, stir up a morose soup that seeps deep into your soul sadly and lingers. You can’t digest it. You can’t shake it. You can’t get rid of it. The darkness is everywhere. Even the melancholy morning sun mourns and yearns for spring. But in our eternal disregard of the brutal truths written on the sad pages of The Book of Our Lives, we pay no attention to it. Spring and its soft breezes of light and life are eternally far away – winter hasn’t even been born yet.
Winter, borne on the dying breath of autumn, is shallow and tenuous at first, so ethereal and nebulous we don’t even notice that life is being slowly sucked from the world around us – and from the souls within us.
We pretend the days are not getting shorter. Lawn mowers still hum as if it were summer; the occasional leaf-blower and the sound of crunching leaves try in vain to warn us that something is changing, that death approaches, that something isn’t quite right with the world.
We sip our beer and read the paper on summer patios oblivious, while the world dies and decays around us. We all pretend to forget that winter is imminent even though frosty nights of autumn – the sentries of the darkness and death to come – leave sparkling reminders for us on our lawns and windshields each morning.
We love to look backward and dread looking forward; we see only what we wish to see. We envision nitrogen-blue skies filled with cottony summer castles – dragons and princesses and horse heads – and ignore the increasingly dark world, and the solemn gray tapestry of winter feasting on the last vestiges of the things of summer. While winter is busy devouring the green things and bright blue summer skies, we sip our memories slowly. But there’s a chill in the air – the curtain of death is coming and we are powerless against it.
Yet some of us still revel in the first snowflakes – the little child which remains inside us rises up and urges us to catch those first few snowflakes on our tongues. Then on that first morning we wake and see a shimmering, crystalline blanket of white covering the world, when we are apt to celebrate its beauty with a childlike wonder – all the while ignoring that it is but a harbinger of death.
Each of us lives in a world which is nothing but a fabrication, our own futile creation. We mould it it from a clay of memories and hopes. While our minds are busy creating, the darkness and death of winter approaches. Winter is a juggernaut, as unstoppable as the turnings and unfoldings of the universe. Winter comes too quickly for some – while for others winter cannot come quickly enough. Regardless, winter comes when it will. Some somber, cold morning each of us will awaken to find that our winter has arrived… and with it comes a world of broken and brittle dead things, sprouting sad and weary from the tired and dirty snow.
LOL I look to winter as a time to unwind, a time to not have to do anything except lounge where ever I want to and do nothing! It is a time of rest! There is no yard work, it’s to cold to go anywhere, just snuggle in and have a jammie day! That is not a bad thing to me! I do that as all of everything else is also taking a break! You call everything dead or dying, I call it sleeping and resting. Ah, in the eyes of the beholder! I love the dark mornings as long as I can roll over and sleep in…it is a restful time to me!
I Love it! And then I love spring, my step quickens, my garden plans kick in, I love the crisp fresh air! All seasons are glorious to someone! And that someone is me!
No winters for this girl of sunshine where flowers are blooming – telling you it’s a wonderful outside. I’ll take the warm air any day over the coldness and feelings of despair which Old Man Winter always brings and lingers for months…..
Winter time is depressing – much like watching the wilting of flowers that’ll be dying of their beautiful colors and smells only for the snow to cover the earth and hangs around for months. Birds and their chirps have gone South for lack of food to feed themselves and their young. No friendly hello’s from the neighbors across the fence or laughter in parties across the yards with their barbeque pits emitting the smells of wonderful foods..
Winter storms bring down ice covered power lines – only having to wait for days for repairs when you have shutins needing to see a doctor or visit a sick friend. The snow is beautiful to look at… but ONLY for a day or two. After all, I’m a Southern girl who loves the year around summers.
Yes, I agree, winter is a time that can be very depressing, but you must except it, and just do lot’s of reading, get on the pc, and read and learn, take in information. Sleep in, gets lots of rest, and look at the beautiful snow. And tell the Lord, how blessed you are to be warm, and have food, and friends, and family. Also can’t forget about the little critters that you take care of, during these hard cold days of winter. LoL.
Brrr. I’d never survive. My grandfather was born in La Crosse, Wisc. – maybe he left because he was a sissy like me, for I’m a hot-weather person. I do hope that this Polar Vortex will return to normal for us all.
I’m with Deanna on this one. Winter is a time to rest up. In late Fall, I gather all the potted plants and nestle them together in the corner of the deck so they can survive the cold snaps. If needed, I cover them with a protective clear tarp to insulate. They sleep and rest. I rest and read; catch up on my movies; do something archaic like read a book or two or three (lol). We’re fortunate here on the Pacific Northwest coast area. Our winters, which used to be harsh in my childhood years, are now mild by comparison. We do get a little slushy snow for a few days a year but, for the most part, the temperatures stay in the 19-30 degree range on our coldest days. Already, the winter crocuses are poking up through the ground and the buds are on the trees getting ready for another Spring. I could survive the polar express vortex if I had to but I live here in a more temperate area for a reason – I prefer not to go through bad winters anymore. I’m sure, in time, the cycle will come back to us like it used to; everything does. In the meantime, food to the food bank for those in need; warm blankets (crocheted or purchased) for those who are cold; sandwiches for the homeless – there’s so much to do.
Winter controls bugs and such it has its purpose . being that I said that maybe we ought to live with the bugs and such and do away with winter . Yea!!!!