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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