It snowed in Knoxville yesterday. Again. In early March. And while I still find the fluffy white stuff pretty, I am officially over it and have been for a few weeks now.
I have to confess that I am not a big fan of winter after the holidays. I love, love, LOVE Christmas and enjoy all the lovely wintry elements associated with it. And I even enjoy the first couple of snowfalls (as long as they don't make my job drastically more stressful). But after New Year's, winter gets old pretty quickly.
January is "the Great Letdown" month in my mind. I'm coming off a big "high"--if you will--after the holidays and after the first couple of weeks winter begins to lose its charm. February is then the month of being "in the bleak midwinter." The second month of the year is generally still cold (although not nearly as cold as this one was--February 2010 was the 11th coldest February on record in Knoxville), but I'm ready for spring. And it never seems to be in any hurry to get here at that point.
February also is usually the point during the winter months where I have to ask the Lord for help to avoid "the winter blahs." Weeks of dreary, cold weather eventually starts to get to me and almost always has. This year's cold winter has made staying cheerful and avoiding a semi-depressed state even harder.
I really am trying to find ways to stay upbeat about winter. So lest you believe this blog post is all whining, I'll share a list I recently made of the things I like about winter. It may be short, but here it is in no particular order:
- No mosquitoes, bees, wasps or other pesky bugs to annoy me or make my life miserable
- Snuggling up under a blanket near the fireplace and enjoying the occasional cup of hot cocoa
- the Winter Olympics (every four years)
- The beauty of snowfall (even if it makes my life crazier at work, I do find the snow and ice pretty)
Winter also is beneficial to nature and the lovely flowers I enjoy so much in the warmer months:
- Winter allows trees and other plants to take a break from producing leaves and flowers and focus on resting and deepening their roots
- Snow, particularly if it sits on the ground for a few days, really adds lots of extra moisture to the earth (although that's more of a problem than a benefit this year coming on the tail end of last year's crazy surplus of rainfall!)
- A really cold winter, such as the one we're experiencing, tends to kill off more pesky bugs than normal, leaving less of them to annoy me during the summer :)
In another recent effort to shed myself of the winter blues, I bought a lovely African violet and placed it on my desk at work. :) Its pretty purple blossoms have succeeded in bringing numerous smiles to my face. (My next mission: keep it alive. I don't have the greatest track record with sustaining little potted plants like African violets long term. Hopefully I can manage not to accidentally kill it this time.)
And if those positives aren't enough to cheer me up on a cold, overcast winter day, I remind myself that God made winter just like he made spring and fall, and everything he created is good.
"It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter." - Psalm 74:17
But with March comes the hope of spring. And after growing up in East Tennessee, I know I can rest assured that even if it snowed on March 2nd, by March 31st it will surely be getting warmer around here and we will probably have enjoyed at least a few mild and pleasant days.
The anticipation of spring after the long winter months is one of the many reasons why I like the season so much. I appreciate the warmth and beauty more after coming out of months of chilly gray and the world simply feels like a happier place. There are many other reasons I like spring, but I'll probably save those for a jubilant "spring is here" blog post celebrating the first warm stretch we have in late-March/early April. :)
But for now, I'll simply keep reminding myself that winter isn't really that bad--and better yet, like everything else in life, it is only temporary. Spring really is right around the corner. :)
"To everything there is a season; a time for every purpose under heaven." - Ecclesiastes 3:1
