Winter Blues or Beauty?
I love winter. In this opening sentence I can hear groans and moans coming from near and far, so I’ll start by saying I am truly sorry if you are one of the 29% to 34% of people who feel negative about those icy winds, chills and bare trees. There are 10% to 13% of people who outright hate it! (Taken from an EMI research solutions panel.) Oh my heart goes out to you having to bear such an intolerable season. I do hope you can hang onto the knowledge that spring is just around the corner.
Memories of a conversation I wrote about in my previous book Beauty All Around, are flooding back. I was driving my dear Mum to a doctor’s appointment when she commented on all the bare trees that line the streets of the roads in the very wintery cold town we lived in. In Autumn time the colours brought so much joy as the leaves were turning to the brilliant oranges, reds, yellows and golds, but in winter all that was left were the bare branches. My Mum thought they looked so ugly, but I loved seeing the trees in their naked form. They looked so vulnerable against the misty foggy sky and those harsh winter winds that could be so cruel… but I could also see the magnificent beauty of the way the branches crisscrossed each other as they reached to the sky to be the first to feel the warmth of the sun. It really did look like the most intricate lace work. This quote of Coco Chanel describes it perfectly –
“I consider lace to be one of the prettiest
imitations ever made of the fantasy of nature;
Lace always evokes for me those incomparable designs
which the branches and leaves of trees
embroiders across the sky,
and I do not think that any invention of the
human spirit could have more
graceful or precise origin.”
Coco Chanel April 29th, 1939 (1883 – 1971)
Apart from loving the feeling of being a tad cooler compared to our extremely hot and humid summer months, I seem to gain so much more energy in the winter months than I do any other time of the year. Are you one of these people too? Maybe it’s because I am a lefty or because I live in the southern hemisphere, who knows? I’m sure there is some profound scientific biological reason for this, but for the sake of not boring you, how about we just accept the knowledge that it is a known fact. In saying that, I am not one of those people who can bounce out of bed on a cold winter’s day – not on any day actually, but once I’m up and have had my first cuppa tea for the day, I seem to be able to achieve so much more in my day to day activities, than I do in the hotter months. Are any of you nodding your head in agreement?
This certainly doesn’t agree with the life patterns of the grizzly bear or the water dragons that come to our garden. Oh the water dragons, not grizzly bears that come to our garden. Heaven forbid! I do see though that some of the readers that come to visit my webpage are from areas where this is possible. Gosh, I hope you stay safe, but unlike the bears and lizard, who hibernate for the winter, I know there are many of you who just love to be achieving all those things on your to do list, that are just waiting for you to gain some energy. I hope you are all having a very successful time in these cooler months.
To those of you who are catching up on your favourite t.v series or the pile of books whilst underneath your snug warm quilt in front of the fire, I do hope winter is being kind to you. I do make sure I have time for this too. Like the Good Book says, there is a time for everything and there are very important reasons for the seasons we go through.
The garden is a very special place for me in winter. The roses and other bushes need pruning and it’s a great time to get all the weeding done. You can then top soil and be ready for the spring bulbs that know exactly the right time to pop their heads through, with the promise of beautiful blooms. Where I live we have some early bloomers with the delicate little snowflakes; heavily perfumed jonquils and gorgeous yellow daffodils spoiling us with their beauty already. My thought is that God purposely made them that way, to give us hope of the wonderful spring that is to come. For those of you who are barely tolerating winter, I do hope this little flash of floral beauty is warming your hearts at least.
A few years ago, I wrote a poem about the seasons for a dear friend who was having so much sadness and distress in her life. Her family had deserted her; health was a constant worry and there seemed no hope at all in her situation changing. She absolutely loathed winter. Her frail frame made it nearly impossible for her to warm up at all and living in a very cold heritage house on the edge of an icy lake did not help her situation at all, especially when those chilly winds blew. A few of her friends would gather in her home each week for a day of quilting, cups of tea, sharing stories of life, family, lessons learnt, oh and did I mention cups of tea? Little by little we saw this dear ladies situation change for the better. She wasn’t particularly a person of any faith and on one occasion when I asked her about this she quickly and with quite gusto replied “God and I are quite OK thank you!” Bless her. When I did give her this poem she rang me a few days later and said it had brought a tear and had blessed her. You can read it in my POEMS page – just click above.
The theme in my poem ‘Seasons’ is that no matter what season we are going through in life, we can be comforted and assured that ‘He knows.’ We can trust in the one that knows best and knows and loves us more than we could ever imagine.
So, pull on those long johns, mittens, scarf and beanie… there is a beautiful world out there waiting for you to explore. Gaze up into the magnificent bare trees and see the first little spots of green shoots as the leaves start peeping through. Aren’t they clever that they know how to do that? New life is marvellous and remember… SPRING IS COMING!
