Wintry Morning Perspective

I was being overambitious when I set out to write a weekly blog, so here I am several weeks later, feeling inspired to share my curated thoughts and take a creative writing break.

After this is published, a fresh project list is waiting for me, loads of laundry running in the background, and sometime before tomorrow I have an Elsa dress needing my attention. There’s a certain four year old girl that needs me to hone in on my grade 8 family studies sewing skills - those skills failed me yesterday for a Halloween party and let’s just say duct tape came in handy… please don’t judge me.

Depending on where you are waking up this morning, you may have been greeted by the first fresh snowfall of the season. That beautiful white stuff, we call snow.

I’ll be the first to admit that I used to hate winter. Despise winter might actually be a more accurate term. I truly hated it for years. Don’t get me wrong on the days where it gets so cold that the air hurts my face, I still might be reminded that I am not a huge fan of the colder weather, however in the last few years I have started to embrace it and find the magic in the change of season.

This morning when I scrolled through Instagram, I saw posts hating on the white stuff, and then I saw others showing videos of their kids already playing in it and the excitement and magic it can truly bring. When my husband looked out and told me there was quite a bit of snow out there, I couldn’t help but smile knowing how excited my kids would be about it. Their little giggles, the pure joy and excitement at seeing snow covering everything, furthermore when they got to wear their new boots and winter jackets to school (I know that novelty will wear off) there was such an innocence to it that I started this Monday off with a full heart.

After sending the kids off on the bus, I went for a short walk to the back of my property. No music, no scrolling, just listening and taking in mother nature’s beauty. The snow was falling off branches in heaps, there were fresh prints from an animal on the ground and I quickly remembered why winter has become one of my favourite seasons. It’s magical and often overlooked.

I was thinking about the seasons…

In the spring we always look forward to seeing the fresh growth that greets us, those initial plants coming back to life, the leaves on the trees returning and there’s magic in watching it all come to life.

In the summer we embrace the warmth, the sunshine, the beauty that surrounds us, spending more and more time outside with longer days, carefree and making memories.

Then fall comes and we focus on the beauty of fall, the leaves changing, the world becoming even more colourful and the crisp air that takes away the humidity and has us embracing the change in seasons.

But then winter comes, and often we focus on how cold it is, how the days are shorter, darker and harder in general. But what if we choose to welcome winter in the same way children do, with excitement, with a full heart and looking forward to the opportunities of the fun that can be had outside.

Welcoming winter with a new perspective this morning. Welcoming the slower pace of life winter often brings, the blankets, warm beverages, playing for hours in the snow, exploring animal tracks and taking in the beautiful white layer it brings with all of those fresh opportunities awaiting our footprints.