Monday morning musings...

Right now we are experiencing a surprise squall/blizzard of sorts. It is moving through the area with warnings of its potential to restrict visibility for the next hour or two. As I gaze out through my morning-nest window I am contemplating the immense value of warmth. It has been a bitterly cold winter with very little reprieve in the cold temperatures. Tonight and tomorrow we are warned of minus numbers with a wind chill as lows as as 20 below. In Wisconsin where we have family they are talking wind chills as low as -50! That is cold! One day last week I ran out quickly to start Ruby and by the time I came back in 30-45 seconds later my freshly washed hair was frozen to my head and my skin felt like it was burning!

Yes, it is a cold winter. A winter like I remember from my youth when we had cold temperatures like this regularly, as well as consistently heavy snow. I admit to being extremely tired of this winter already, and it's not even February yet. I want to run away to somewhere warm and feel soft breezes on my skin. And I'm not a winter hater! This one has just been especially stressful and wearing on me. Can you take away an understanding of my state of mind from my new blog design? My questing soul stretching out for softness and harmony? For green?

But one thing this winter has done is made me think about how wonderful the reality of warmth is. It seems almost impossible to me, how it could be so cold outside, yet we have managed to figure out how to stay toasty warm inside. How thin a shell separates us from the frigid atmosphere just inches away. How quickly our little abodes would plummet if our heat stopped. But it doesn't! We survive because we have learned how to, and I am very thankful for that today. Thankful that I can sit quietly drinking my morning coffee and watch, among all our regulars, a flock of goldfinches that have come for sustenance this morning. Thankful that I can sit here at my computer writing this. That I can make soup, bake bread, fold clothes and make my bed. And I can do it all warm. Yes, warmth is a marvelous thing.