The Scent of Winter

We are deep into another Canadian Winter and it may be challenging for some to appreciate the fact that it is not a permanent seasonal state. I am not altogether sure why Summer always seems to be trying to catch the next flight out of town, so fleeting is its annual visitation. Whereas, in some people’s minds, Winter by contrast, overstays its welcome like an obtuse, uninvited guest with a tenacious ability to ignore our need to access and accommodate heat.

Since Winter like Summer, is an integral part of Creation, one has to make some effort to be appreciative. There is value to be found in things that seem, well… less so. One person sees Winter’s stark, monochromatic bleakness, while another sees Divine art through the ever changing lines and contours of meandering snow drifts, or snow-capped mountain peaks rising above a cloud deck. It is what you make it. Not to take away from anyone’s preference (I love Summer), but I think we at times miss opportunities; little gems of surprise and wonder, when we dismiss out of hand, those things that either feel like drudgery, or inconvenient.

Yes, even in winter, grab hold of the sweet scent of the very things that continually assault your slightly numbed-by-the-cold senses. They are the very things that equivocally remind us that we are alive. If nature can celebrate it’s uniqueness and diverse grandeur in wild abandon each season, why should we do any less with what we have been blessed with?