For me, January is always the longest month. Short daylight. Sub-zero temperatures. One year, using an accurate clock,I literally took notes as daily I watched to see when the dawn-to-dusk light came on every evening. I was surprised that slowly, by about 2 minutes a day, the days were in fact getting longer. And so, because of that annotated record keeping, I have learned that while February and March can still be very cold here in Colorado's high alpine San Luis Valley (towered over by 14,000+ elevation mountains of the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rockies), winter's hard-fisted grip does begin to loosen somewhat. I spent nearly 2 hours on the roof today chopping away at an ice build-up that was causing a leak in the garage. As long as the sun is out, the ice melts quickly. The minute the sun begins to set, however, those freezing temperatures resume. Still, we live in the Southwest where we are blessed nearly every day of the year, (about 340 out of 365 days actually,) with amazing sunshine. Artist Georgia O'Keefe left New York City to live the remainder of her painting days in this area. Photographer Ansel Adams preferred this region because of it's amazing light, to that of Yosemite where his earlier work was done. Our valley elevation is 7,600 feet above sea level. So yes, it's cold here. We have 4 seasons: Winter, Almost Spring, Summer, Almost Winter.
I once hated living in this bitter cold. But as I've gotten older, and as I have traveled somewhat extensively, I've come to learn that 1) the ideal situation does not exist; 2) the wind blows everywhere, not just here, and 3) I prefer our bitter winter over the bugs and insects of more tropical areas. I still don't like our Januarys, but... I've tried to make the most of them. To wit: I took a day off from work and went skiing at Wolf Creek Ski Area recently. I don't get the same thrill out of skiing that I did when I was younger, but I enjoyed the peace and beauty atop the Continental Divide, and yeah, I still like the speed of skiing in fine new powder. Next, to authenticate my Scandanavian roots, I went from hot tub to rolling in the snow, back to the hot tub, back to rolling in the snow ~ in our backyard patio area. It felt like a zillion needles and pins pricking my skin, but I slept better that night than I have in a long time. One of the photos above shows my body imprint in the snow. But the real joys of this past month come from a couple of simple, unexpected things: 1) while running on the banks of the Rio Grande River, I came upon an almost friendly red fox who, rather than run quickly from me, seemed almost as curious about me as I was about him/her. We both continued our run without stopping, but I was enriched by sharing the same path, if only for a short time. He/She was an amazingly beautiful creature. And then, our harsh winter fogs provided yet again the most amazing frost on trees and fences. Perhaps it is my advancing age that allows me to now appreciate, where in my youth I distained, these amazing white landscape portraits of nature.
I have come to believe that an all-knowing, all-loving wise Heavenly Father placed me here for reasons central to His wanting the best for me. I've come to know that I'm here to be tested, but I believe, and appreciate, that He placed me here because He knew this was where I would best test. As a teacher, I never try to set my kids up for failure. Rather, I try everything I can to insure that they learn and pass my classes. I test them, yes, but I do my best to insure an environment and condititons best suited to their chances at success. And so, I'm rather convinced that I'm here, not by some whim, not by some mere toss of the coin, but rather, because this is where He feels I can best succeed in passing life's tests. I find a certain certitude to that.
I enjoy spending time in our greenhouse. Outside, the mid-day temperatures are in the low 30's. But on weekends when I'm home, by afternoon, it's a warm 78 degrees in my little Danish greenhouse. I sit in my Carolina rocker and read from my selected Books-to-be-Read This Year list. And, I've begun planning my summer gardens, I'm preparing my homemade newspaper peat pots for planting seeds that I've started to buy. Winter's iron-like grip is starting to loosen. That's okay by me.
Be well, do good...
