Unearthed Jewel No. 7…winter days.

Most people disagree that winter is the best season. A huge fan of fall because where I live, the colors are amazing! I always say it’s when the earth has it’s make up on. Mother earth gets dressed up in the spring too. Despite endless mosquito bites and sunburns, who can deny summer? Lake days and poolside days with your favorite beverage. Each month brings about its unique blessings. Winter, brings about something special. Coziness and togetherness. Nothing is more special than when my children are all around me. It’s a special time when roads are not safe and we are bound to stay home and just be. Today I could hear my oldest son and youngest laughing together playing a game. I sat in the next room listening to their chatter and amusement. One being 20 years old and the other being 14, they are always going in opposite directions. Today’s forecast forced them to have some time together. Time for them to slow down, bond and just be together for a moment. Having to stay in is a blessing. Us Americans who work, work hard. It seems that tasks before us are never ending. How much can we give, do, make, accomplish? Continued rising costs make the chain of today’s living feel much heavier. Those of us in our 40’s have had to readjust our expectations of what our lives are supposed to be like right now. We’ve had to lower our expectations of where we thought we should be and what we thought we should be able to buy and do. That’s why a snow day, a wintery mix soothes the soul and puts my perspective back where it needs to be. It forces one to remember the simple things that bring joy and peace to life. How many times do we get to slow down? The weather conditions take the guilt away from not meeting our responsibilities and gives us the freedom to just be with. I lit the new candle I bought off the clearance shelf a couple weeks ago. Wore my piling–favorite sweatshirt, sat in my recliner with my dog at my side. My youngest son and I got to make jokes with one another that only he and I would get because we share the same exact humor. A humor that is truly unique to us. I listened to my oldest talk about anything he wanted to talk about in his 20 year old world. I even walked a bowl of dinner up to his bedroom as he started a virtual meeting with a professor about an exam he has tomorrow. The closest way I can baby him at his age. It soothed my soul to make a meal that my daughter loves, the daughter I just brought home a couple years ago. I love that in my slowed down moment. I was able to recognize and remember for a second how far she and I have come. Finally, after being here two years, she no longer feels the need to ask for water or a second helping of dinner. Winter days may not offer much outside, but they do offer a slowing down. A staying together and a lot of internal joy.