Hark the Herald inbox sings, the Ohio Briar Christmas post is here with tidings of comfort and joy!
How are you doing? With cold crisp days and colder long nights, winter is here in Ohio. I hope you’re well and keeping the chill off, wherever you are. We had a good snowfall last week in Granville. Four inches fell between midnight and dawn, blanketing the view outside our bedroom windows in a thick layer of the white stuff. Waking up to the first snow of the season is a nice way to view it. Why, you could say it was just like a picture print from Currier and Ives. Of course, that feeling soon subsides when you have to get out in it in any capacity other than building a snowman or riding a sled down a big hill.
I’m making an effort to get out and enjoy the season’s quiet. The dropping mercury coaxes me inside more and more, but as soon as I’m out in the woods, I feel rejuvenated. It’s great in the way only winter can be. The cold tends to keep the hiking traffic down on many trails too, and the muted sound from the snow covered everything really calls you to be present in the moment. Frozen trails crunch under foot, and the trees creaking in the wind sounds like it's turned up to eleven. I’ve been provided the time and space to contemplate a year that has had challenges.
I can’t help but feel like this coldest, darkest time of year is emblematic of the end of all things that end. Of course, right? Spring is new and fresh, bight and green. Summer is warm and sunny, and the days are long and full of possibility. Autumn slows you down. It cools you off, and is beautiful and vibrant. And then, nearly everything stops.
Days seem strikingly short. Cold and dark, it makes you hunker down. It's understandable why so many get down with seasonal depression. The world around us seems to have lived an entire life in a year’s time, and now it's over. But that’s the way it goes. And recognizing the beauty that all the seasons bring is a nice skill to practice. After all, all things pass, and a little preparedness can’t hurt.
Now, stopping to smell the roses doesn’t stop time from marching on, but listening to songbirds sing, and appreciating a warm breeze on your face in spring, or the unmistakable smell of rain on hot dry ground helps tone the muscle that lets us be thankful. To appreciate what we have, and what we don’t, and the ones we love. A call to catch up and hear the news a friend has to tell, or stopping to see if your neighbor you haven’t heard from in a while is doing fine, or taking someone’s hand you’ve loved your whole life and telling them you love them.
Whether we’re on the giving or the receiving end, it distills the antidote that saves us from sadness, hopelessness, and the most corrosive thing to the human heart, resentment. So while every season has its downside, they all offer us remarkable beauty. And as Pollyanna as it sounds, it does help to find peace and joy in your environment, whether physical, mental, or spiritual.
I hope your holiday season has been merry and bright. And from my family to yours, have yourself a merry little Christmas!
Dan