Is it just me, or has this winter been particularly challenging for the body and the spirit? The combination of frigid, stormy winter weather and a sloth-like lethargy have leveled me this year. So many factors have aligned, creating a “perfect storm” that’s got me dragging myself through my days, hoping for the warming sun of early spring to show up soon and redeem me. Mainers have, indeed, earned their reputation as stalwart, hearty folk for wintering here year upon year.
Starting my work day in the dark....and then finishing it in the dark has left me feeling like all I do is crawl out of bed and crawl back into bed, day after day for six or eight weeks on end. It’s hard to muster any enthusiasm for an after work walk with my dogs when I can’t see my own hand in front of my face, my teeth are chattering and the sidewalks are ice-covered.
It’s also unfortunate that the “busy time” at my chosen yoga studio is always in January/February. Everyone is seeking refuge from the cold and trying to keep their New Year’s fitness resolutions, while clogging, stinking and sweating up my personal space. Top that off with a Groupon offering by my studio for cheap classes last month, and it’s been hard to find a parking spot for my car in the lot much less a two-foot-by-six-foot space for my mat in the practice room. On the one hand, going to yoga represents the opportunity to be around people (instead of dogs) and to move my body. On the other hand, my bed is so much more inviting when I’m chilled to the bone from working outside all day.....even if it IS 6:00 p.m.
And then there’s food. Let’s face it: I don’t know a single person for whom food does not represent comfort. Who wants to go to yoga when there’s a crock pot of lentil stew simmering in the kitchen after a day spent outside picking up dog poop and freezing your ass? There seems to be no end to my cravings for comfort food lately. Pasta and cheese and bread and mashed potatoes and...well...you get the picture. I even baked cookies this week. I want it ALL and then I want to roll into my warm bed and hibernate, with a fistful of cookies to munch until sweet slumber overtakes me.
Winter is, of course, a time for turning inward....hibernating or cocooning while awaiting spring’s rebirth, both in nature and within our own hearts. Bears do it. Caterpillars do it. Why not me? For so many years, I’ve been so good...running miles and miles in subzero weather, putting in dozens of classes in the hot yoga room during those frozen winter months. This year, I’ve just lost my verve somehow. I find it hard to recall how it was I got myself to don all those layers and hit the road....or take off all those layers and hit the mat.
The thing that’s gotten me through these long, dark weeks has been my photography and for that I’m ever grateful. Scrolling through years worth of images of glorious spring and summer hikes, sailing trips and sunny vacations has provided hope of warmer, longer days. March is upon us now, and the birds are appearing and singing in the trees on some balmier late mornings and early afternoons. A big group of European Starlings descended on my bird feeders last week and pecked and munched heartily while four fat Robins watched and waited their turn from the high, bare branches of a birch tree. In the early mornings, a Cardinal couple has been staking out their territory in a neighboring yard, the male’s shiny coat studding an otherwise drab landscape with a brilliant dot of cherry while he calls out from the highest branch of an evergreen.
These harbingers of spring have drawn me out of my cocoon and back into the world a bit. Ideas for creative projects are sprouting inside me and enthusiasm for a return to my athletic life is building. And these dark, quiet times have given me ample opportunity to dwell on the possibility of change in some key areas of my life. Painful and long as these winter days have been at times, we all know that pain and darkness pave the way toward change. Perhaps it’s a good thing that we Mainers have this annual time of drawing inward and retreating from the cold for a while. A slower pace and a more contemplative, broody mood might actually be healthy for the soul and the spirit, offering the chance to think things through, germinate a few seeds and prepare for the next season of weather and of life as well. In any event, here we are just a few short weeks from spring. We’ve almost made it through the dark. My spirit feels ready for some thawing and the warmth of a strong sun. And don’t we all need a little sunshine? I hear it's coming on Saturday...all day. I'll be out there, drinking it in.
No comments:
Post a Comment