Even the easy way is hard enough

The dead of winter finds me enjoying 70 plus degree afternoons after 40 something degree nights.  A whole year’s wardrobe worn in just 24 hours.  Down fill for the pre dawn chill, Polar Tec for the mornings, and cotton for the warmth of the afternoon then as the sun begins it’s downward arc the whole thing reverses. In Southern California you never get to put everything away.

I’m basking like a lizard on a rock in the warmth of the early sun enjoying the last cup of the sunrise pot of tea. The morning’s chores completed and the afternoons not as yet quite defined.

I know I really should bathe the dog but she knows this and always outsmarts me by looking like she is so enjoying her mid day nap, knowing full well that I am a sucker for a good nap and will let her sleep.

This time of the year, north of the equator we should all intentionally take a moment, even if it’s only one breath and appreciate that we are likely to make it.  I have mindfully listened to the old stories and I’ve come to appreciate that it was not always so. Children coming back to school after the winter recess often meant that school chums, often whole family units had succumbed to the diseases we now regularly dismiss with a dose of aspirin or antibiotics.

It’s a deeply ingrained appreciation and respect for the challenges of another winter. Not that we would be able to take advantage of the after Christmas sales or even the next good swell. But every creature’s deepest desire lay down and for the most part silently locked away in their DNA is to make just one more trip around the sun.