Winter's Coming

I like winter, no, I love winter.  It's my second favorite season.  Autumn being my first.  It's over now though--autumn.  It really is, even though according to our calendar winter does not officially start for another few weeks--it's snowing.  Oh yes, it is.  So in my own little world, that means winter is coming.

My husband has a theory as to why I love winter so much.  He thinks it's because I like to cocoon.  That's what he calls it--cocooning.  I don't think that's a real word, but that's never stopped me before--I kind of like my made up words.  I also like cocooning.

Yes, I believe that I do make a cocoon of sorts.  I love sitting with my books, laptop, and iPad, I love reading by the fire, writing, and thinking.  I love sitting with my dog, praying and worshiping.  It seems to me that there is more time for that--in the winter.

The winters here are usually bright and sunny, very few days are dreary.  With that sunshine, comes hope and with that hope a gratefulness pours from my heart.  I look outside and see the snow glistening, and I feel happy and safe.  And it's not as though I don't venture out, because I do.  I put on my heavy winter paraphernalia and head out.  Bundled up--coat, gloves, boots and scarves, out I go, into the sunshine, into the brisk cold, into the world that God made.

However, right now, as I sit with my legs curled beneath me, laptop balanced precariously on my thighs, there is a quietness to the outdoors, a softness that isn't there when the snow melts.  The only sounds I can hear right now are the noises that my house makes--just the humming of my refrigerator really.  Everything else is so quiet.  I am able to think this way, me and my laptop, fire going, dog sleeping, and I know that all is well within my small world.

Think about it for just a moment, if it were spring or summer I would want to be walking outside, doing something other than writing.  I would not be in this contemplative state of mind.  I would be looking at flowers and wildlife.  And while there is nothing wrong with that--I do know that I wouldn't be writing.  And writing has become a very important part of my life.  It's a time where I can be real, I can be me, I can talk without fear of being judged.  I guess I think that if you don't like what I write, you won't read it.  Believe me, that thought frees me up to write about any little thing that pops into my brain.

What I have noticed about myself over the past few years is that in the winter months I am inclined to write more, ponder more, and reflect more on life--more specifically my life.  As the year comes to an end, I become more in tune with my circumstances.  In fact what I notice is that I take the time.  That's it.  I'm not distracted by warm sunny weather and all that it holds.  I tend to settle in for a few short months and once again become a very deep thinker.  And then, as each thought surfaces, I share them, kind of like small pieces of candy.

Yes, winter's coming, and I am glad.  I will settle in.  I will write more.  I will appreciate all that is around me, because winter's coming.