Thursday, January 3, 2013

winter...

It's cold outside. It's been cold all week...with dark skies and a drizzling rain. I couldn't be more excited about it. Granted, forty three degrees is hardly a deep freeze but it is as close to winter as I've had in a long while and I'm relishing every moment. Apparently, this soul of mine *needs* seasons and this brief cold snap is like a reset button. It's so familiar...to be curled up inside with socks and long sleeves. Too wet out there to even want to go out is so validating to the part of me that misses being snowed in...snowed in with a good old movie, lots of books, hot tea and homemade soup. This brief respite from the normal balmy (or sweltering) weather makes me feel....like me. Not a visitor, not a foreigner but me.

Most of the time this house of ours feels like a lab partner I've been paired with...one I barely know, one I'm not sure I'll like once we know each other better. That awkward relationship of a shared task with a stranger in a class you don't even like. Inevitably, one of you breaks the ice with a joke, though. Or you both realize you have some other shared knowledge or acquaintance and then an ease settles in. Maybe even a friendship takes hold. This weather goes a long way to push me and this house together. A room is never so warm or inviting as when it whispers to you to come away from a cold window.

Only three days into this new year and I've already said "thank you" more times than I can count. For the familiar season I've missed. For a chance to just be me and not be constantly striving to adapt. For desperately needed rain. For the chance to watch my children "ice skate" across the floor in socks they actually need to keep their little toes warm. For a chance to pull out a favorite scarf for an outing tonight with new friends.

So far, it's been a very good...and "homey" new year.




1 comment:

  1. I cannot tell you enough how much I LOVE your way with words... You should write everyday!!! I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!! And I think it's a good thing for the "thank you" jar! We're starting a "thank you" jar this year, where we write down all the "thank you" moments and place them in a jar... so, next year we can look back and say... "Wow! Look what the Lord has done... it is Marvelous in our eyes!" :) You're such a beautiful writer, Dixie!

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