Let me say this right at the beginning… winter is NOT my favourite season. But for those of us who live north of the 49th parallel, winter is the largest part of our year so we make the best of it.
As a child I loved winter…I grew up in the mountains of British Columbia and we had wonderful times of sledding, tubing and skiing. Not to forget the snow angels, snowmen and snowball fights, skating parties. The weather in the mountains is always unpredictable so a skating rink wasn’t always an option. Sometimes we got a dump of snow in almost melting temperature so that would wreck the ice. We had a horseshoe shaped lake we skated on when the conditions were right, which was beautiful on a moonlit night.
Then I moved to the prairies of Alberta where chinooks happen regularly throughout the winter. I rather enjoyed that except the brown prairie wasn’t the most beautiful winter scene. Especially moving from mountains to prairie was a bit of scenery disappointment. But through the years I realized you can see beauty in everything if you look. Even the bald prairie has a beauty when it’s dusted with fresh snow.
Through the years I developed fibromyalgia which is a chronic fatigue and muscle pain condition. The cold started to bother me. It seems I can never add enough layers to be warm when I go outside in winter, especially when the air is humid. That cold just goes so deep and my muscles just stiffen.
So I don’t enjoy winter in the same way anymore. Any exertion in the cold makes my muscles ache for days. Even as a teacher I don’t go outside with my students. I feel like I miss part of the day with them but I can be a better teacher when I feel well.
I love looking out and seeing the snow. There is a delicate beauty in the pureness of a new snowfall. I don’t enjoy driving in it so much, maybe mostly because a car can’t go as many places in it as a bigger vehicle can. But I don’t mind being in a passenger seat with a driver I trust.
I am reminded that “to everything there is a season.” Would I look forward to summer and warm weather as much if I didn’t experience winter? It is also a challenge to make the most of what I am faced with.
Susie Fehr 