Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad
~From The Sound of Music

I’m guessing that most of our Exponent readers are too young to remember packages tied with string arriving in the mail (packing tape just isn’t nearly as exciting). When I was a kid, they were usually from Grandma–for birthdays of Christmas. Getting things in the mail isn’t any less magical now that it was then. I love seeing something lumpy or square-ish in our mailbox, and it’s even better when it’s addressed to me!

Recently I’ve had a few losses that have made me feel pretty blue.  Perhaps it’s also the effect of the days getting shorter and cooler, too.  I’ve had to really work at remembering what brings me joy.  Today it was a soft pair of socks, a purring kitten in my lap, and the perfect cheese melted golden brown on the shepherd’s pie that my spouse baked for dinner.  All of these things are good.  Even in the midst of a season when the nights are too long.

by Brooke

Moving from Southern CA to New England is like moving from a virtually weatherless bubble to the real world. So I think about weather constantly. And maybe everyone else here does too, but I’m not used to thinking about weather constantly. So it feels like an obsession to me. And when I obsess about things, I tend to write poems about them.

Winter Weather Poem

It is winter
I wear hat, coat, boots everywhere
when it snows I am amazed
when it rains I am amazed
if anything falls from the sky

I am amazed
as I explain to my son why it happens
and the whole time I think is this really what happens and why?
I keep thinking this as I explain the cold of winter
the sun and its distance
the tilt of the planet

And I am amazed
as we wheel across space
on a giant sphere orbiting a gianter sphere
and my brain gets lost in the hugeness
and so I try to think small
coat, hat, boots
as we walk the block to school

I don’t like winter. At the first hint of changing leaves in the fall, although I try my best to appreciate all the splendor of nature, a faint feeling of dread begins to settle into my bones. The brilliant colors also mean that the leaves are dying and will soon be gone. As for what lies ahead –the long hours of darkness, the bitter cold, the icy sidewalks, the gray skies– I just don’t cope very well. The ground freezes. Plants die or go dormant. In the life-death-life cycle, winter is death. The hustle and bustle of the holiday season wards off the harsh realities of winter for a time, but the New Year comes and goes and I’m still left with long months of winter stretching interminably ahead.This year I have a goal to approach this season with a new perspective. What lessons can Lady Winter teach me when she blows in with her blankets of snow? Winter can be a time to be quiet, to meditate. When the chill chases me indoors, perhaps I’ll use that time to look inside myself. While the plants die and the ground takes a rest from supporting growth, I’ll let some less useful habits and parts of myself die. I’ll curl up with a good book and relax without feeling guilty for not being more productive. I’ll let winter teach me that there is a time to lay fallow. There are seasons and cycles in life. The earth shows me that even the bitterest cold eventually gives way to warmth and the darkest of clouds will part and let the sun shine through. It also shows me there is a time and a place for the cold and dark. Here’s hoping that this year rather than sinking into depression, I can see the quiet beauty of winter and be open to learning nature’s lessons.* Artwork is “Lady Winter” by Odessa Sawyer