Monday, October 8, 2012

Life Is Good - Musings on a Cold Day






Yesterday was a beautiful, balmy day in the low 80’s and very comfortable.  My Mom and I were speaking and she was telling me it was 50 where she is in what I refer to as "the great white north".  Last year they were snowed in for Halloween, with no power for about a week!  The year before that they had to shovel the snow off the roofs because the weight of the snow was caving the roofs in.  That’s craziness!!!  I grew up in the north, but I sure as heck don’t miss the snow, ice, and cold.  I don’t even miss the full change of seasons, sure the foliage was pretty, but if you don’t blink,  you can still see some trees changing color here and there.  But here’s my Mom, telling me how chilly it’s gotten already, and there’s me, terribly smug because I’m going about in flip flops and a t shirt and…WHAM!  Mother Nature and Karma got together and said, “Oh yeah?” 

It didn’t get above 58 degrees here today.  I left the house in a light denim jacket and short sleeved shirt and was blessing the car heater the entire drive into work.  But, we’ve had a few cool mornings and it always warms up nicely by lunchtime so I wasn’t all that concerned.  Stepped outside at lunch, and it’s still freezing!  Ok, not technically freezing, but it is COLD out there!  In my world, anything below 75 is chilly, if it drops below 70 I’m grabbing a sweater and if it goes below that, I’m miserable and looking like the Michelin Man in all my layers and layers of clothing.  Bear will be the first to tell you that it probably took me a full year to “thaw out” after we moved down here.  My body just does not tolerate cold well at all.  As I type this, my fingers feel like little sticks of ice…and I’m in the warm house with a shirt, and a (Gamecocks) hoodie on. 

We’ve been in South Carolina for just over 3 years now, and I’ve gotten used to the weather (the humidity is another story).  Today it occurred to me that maybe I haven’t just gotten used to it, but I’ve begun taking it for granted.  If this is the biggest problem of my day, my chief complaint, then I am really, well and truly blessed.  There’s a double batch of chili simmering away on the stove, and a pan of cornbread baking in the oven.  Bear will be on his way home to me shortly, and we’ll be able to curl up together on the couch, watch a show and spend some time together before we both have to get up to go to our jobs tomorrow.  Life is good.  Sometimes that's all too easy to lose track of.  There are bills to pay, stress from work, budgeting and then re-working the budget when something unexpected comes up and the day to day chaos.  We’ve got a roof over our head, food for our bellies, and we’re still crazy in love with each other after 8 years together.  So today was cold, but it was a blessing in and of itself, because it helped me to see that I’m taking things for granted that I’m very lucky to have.  The cold is a temporary inconvenience, and maybe we won’t always have some of the many blessings we have today, but so long as Bear and I have each other and our families, life will still be good. 

Till next time, y’all! 

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