Reasons I Love Winter

Many people have recently asked me why I love winter so much.  The short answer is "there are many reasons", and nobody likes that answer.  So here's the long answer...

I grew up here, in the southeast corner of Wisconsin.  While we don't get the worst (the best?) of winter, we definitely get winter.  I was born in the Blizzard of '79, as it's known around these parts.  My entire family was stuck sleeping and living in the waiting room of the hosiptal for three days because they couldn't leave.  Doctors and nurses were being brought in to the hospital on snowmobiles because cars were out of the question.  I'm told (yearly) that it was so bad that once the roads were able to be plowed, when you were at an intersection you couldn't actually see any of the cars coming from the opposite direction due to the walls of snow.  People put long poles on their radio antennas and flew hunter orange flags at the top to let other people know there was a car on the other side of that wall of snow.

This is the reason my mother gives for why I like winter so much.

While it's true that I grew up loving winters in Wisconsin, I also loved (and still do love) the summers, springs and autumns.  I generally love all of the seasons, for wildly different reasons.  And maybe that's my secret, loving it all.  Yet for some reason, people are shocked when you say you love the wintertime.

Usually what happens (at work anyway) is a conversation like this:

Me - "Hello"

Unsuspecting Person - "Hi"

Me - "How are you doing today?"

UP - "Cold, sore from shoveling and some idiot almost killed me because he was driving too fast on my way here."

Me - (laughing) "I'm sorry to hear that."

UP - "Yeah well that about sums up winter doesn't it?  It just sucks here in the winter."

(at this point my coworkers wince because they know what's coming)

Me - "Oh I'm not who you should be complaining to about winter.  I love it!"

UP - "What??  What's to love about this godforsaken season??"

Me - "Oh I love everything about it!  The snow, the bundling up, the adventure of it, you know?"

At this point they usually just go on and on about how horrible it is or how I must not have to shovel (which I don't, but I have had to in the past and it never made my love of winter waver).

What I can never get across is that winter is full of quiet romance, and I love that.

Snuggling up on a cold night in a warm house, drinking tea by the steaming cupfuls, the rhythmic chopping of winter vegetables to make soups and stews, making hot cocoa for the kids while they're out playing in the freshly fallen snow (okay I don't have kids, but I do live with 3 of them), cozy sweaters, steamed up windows, frosted windows, flickering candles, dark inviting evenings, the idea of everyone snuggling up in their warm house on the coldest nights, the picture of rows of houses whose windows blaze with warmth while the sky outside is turning to a deep dark blue.  The trees naked and coated in ice, the deep settling in feeling, blankets, hot oatmeal breakfasts, the dazzling colors of a winter sunrise, and a big yellow moon rising over the frozen cold white land.  The fat fluffy snow, the beauty of the sun after days of clouds, feeling the suns warmth in your home while sitting near the window, the adventure of driving up to the store a mile away for something much needed in the middle of a massive snowstorm.  The starkness, the nakedness and vulnerablity of nature.  Everything is undercover and waiting.  The anticipation and expectation of spring is overwhelming at times.  The longing, the hope of what's to come.  I love it all.

I especially love afternoons like this one.  Quiet, reflectivly writing thoughts while nature creaks and moans outside my window as I sip tea.

So maybe that answers it, maybe it doesn't.  Maybe it's a silly reason like I'd way rather be cold than hot.  You can always add more clothes, drink hot drinks, take hot baths, but when you're hot there's only so much you can take off.  Or maybe it's just something in me that causes me to love all of life, even the winters.

A huge part of me thinks that life is what you make of it.  And I'd much rather love everything about life and find joy in it all instead of wasting my energy hating something that I know will always come every year until I decide to take myself out of it.  Optimisim--it has it's perks!