Present with the Season

Good Afternoon -

We've got two Virgens here from the last two nights (Friday and Saturday), but they have similar themes, so we'll just talk about them together, hmm?

It's cold here. It's winter here. There is snow and ice and wind and clear, clear cold blue skies and I love it. I love having a true winter. I love a true winter that's nothing like humid place winter with wet, heavy snow and cold that drills into your bones and refuses to leave.

I love that we still have winter. I love that this is always the time of year that the days are short, the weather is cold, and the snow is falling and that it's happening again this year - despite our bad, bad stewardship of the planet. I'm so glad that we haven't destroyed our climate so much (yet) that winter became a novelty only to be seen in the rarest and furtherest spots for a high price.

And despite the fact that there was "thunder snow" the other day in Chicago and other parts of the Midwest (this is how the weather channel says "apocalypse" I think), I'm so happy that winter still seems to be doing what we expect it to do.

And so we have our winter Virgens. The first is an image of a cabin at Devil's Thumb resort here in Colorado. I had been looking at it as a potential place to experience cross-country skiing, hot springs, and a cabin with my honey, but their prices are such that I'd like to return their Devil's Thumb with a finger salute of my own. Still, it's a lovely image.

The second is just a snowy walk image from the free healthy living magazine Sunflower Market gives away. I'm having to get creative with where I find winter imagery because my current stack of magazines is about tapped.

I can't bring myself, though, to doing some other sort of outdoor scene or season, though, because it just feels so good to be present here in this season. If I was still living in Tucson right now, I would still have these winter images, but my words would be full of love and longing for the season I wanted, the season that didn't exist in southern Arizona. I'm so grateful to be here, I can't dishonor my love for four, distinct moderate seasons called Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall by waxing for one while another is here. Living in extreme heat and dryness will do that to a person, I think.

So, those are our Virgens. We're off now to get my sister from the airport and then a solstice night of wine and finger foods. We've all got a heaviness to our hearts right now, so this will be a much needed evening, methinks.

Here's to that. Here's to food and company that lifts your heart. Here's to Winter. Here's to the grand benevolence of Mother Nature and here's to winter wonderlands.
Oh - and the images below are how my partner and I say "tennis bracelet" or "diamond pendant". The beautiful porcelain coated cast iron cookware you see below is an early Christmas gift from my honey and I love, love, love them. They are, to me, the equivalent of some fancy piece of jewelry (which I find to be a vast waste of money - if you have a couple grand sitting around with my name on it, buy me a ticket and let's go on a trip. I have no need and no desire for high dollar jewelry.).