Winter has wrapped me up again

I love the fall. I love the crisp air and the blue skies and the crunching, blazing leaves on the tree's and the soups! I love the sweaters that have been hidden all summer in my closet. I love the sunshine that keeps me warm and the beauty of a soft morning. I love fall and I love a tiny bit of winter too, but just a tiny bit. I love, love Christmas and snow from December 15th through New Years day. I love the sounds of Christmas and the candlelight services and the writing of Christmas cards and the connecting with friends. It's a Wonderful life is the annual Christmas movie under a warm comforter, with a pot of tea. Love that too.
That seems to be where Winter and I part company. I find the long dark nights to be oppressive. I hate waking in the dark and having it be hours before light comes. I hate the early sunsets and the freezing ice under my feet on my morning walk and the layers upon layers that I must wear to keep my skinny butt warm. I hate the dragging feeling that pervades my days. Oh and the longest day of the year (solstice) why can't that be in, oh say, June?
I love to be outside, to garden and to move and winter wraps me up and makes me heavy and lethargic and wanting to be babysat by HGTV. I know, it's pathetic. Oh, and did I mention my Hubby, hates winter even more than I do? So he is a cranky guy in the cold and that makes for a loooong winter too. So Winter is (as my Dad would say upon looking at me at the breakfast table when I was a snarly teenager) "A thing of beauty is a joy forever"

I am trying to look around for beauty and all I am seeing is brown under dirty snow. Brown, beige, blah. I am also wearing beige and my hair is tossed into a bun on top of my unruly head that just wants to go back to bed. It's Noon and I am still just dragging myself around the house. Then I remember that several dear ones passed away before their time this year. They didn't get the privilege of living to experience the promise of a new day. They didn't get to have another chance to make things right with a person your mad at, or help a suffering stranger, or voice a loving thought to a hungry ear. Brown or not I have been given that choice today. No matter how I might feel. So I am choosing to say "Thanks world." I am choosing to go for a walk and listen to the crunching snow beneath my feet and to be thankful for coats that keep me warm and food to fill my belly. I can call my hubby and encourage him and tell him he matters to me. It's this choice to see the pink flower blooming from the Christmas cactus in the living room. Prickly and pink....Nice