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| I am not giving up my porch |
I know you know. I know you’ve heard. However, I can’t help but to say it
again. I. Love. These. Three. Months.
It’s more than just the holidays,
the fancy outfits, and the decorations.
Those are just a few of the reasons I love these final three months of
the year. You can, of course, add to the
list the closeness of family and gatherings of friends to make the season even
cozier. However, another reason is the weather. I love chilly mornings and changing leaves.
I live in Florida, which means I
don’t see an abundance of either. Eleven
months out of the year its shorts and flip flop weather. You can stretch out on the beach in the
skimpiest outfit and still be toasty warm.
The rest of the year it’s a little cool with only a handful of days
downright freezing.
Perhaps it’s because of the
rarity of temperature changes that I get a rush when the red drops below
seventy, even for a couple of days.
Sweating all year long gets tedious and draining. I get tired of walking to the mailbox and
having to change shirts when I get back inside.
You have to rush home from the grocers before the ice cream melts. It can tire a person out being over 100
degrees day after day.
When the needle drops and the air
turns chill and brisk, it’s like an invigorating shot in the motivation. Where I was wilting before, now there’s a
perkiness to every step. The sudden
weather change wakes you up more than the strongest coffee. My blood races whereas it was sluggish before. I feel energetic and alive. I want to move about instead of boiling in my
own sweat on the couch.
The change of seasons also gives
you a new, fresh perspective. The
landscape looks different, and therefore, offers you a chance to view things
with new eyes. I’m not just talking
about the leaves on the trees or the ground as it starts to freeze over with
the white blanket of snow. I’m referring
to life. As green turns to red and gold
and brown, as sticky, humid air turns crisp and cold, look at everything around
you. Like the heat of Florida, has something
become tedious and stifling? Have you
been enduring in anticipation of something different; better? If so, then give yourself that needed energy
boost and make some changes. They don’t
even have to be anything elaborate or as drastic as going from temperatures in the
hundreds to below freezing. They say that
if you change the thermostat in your house just one degree higher you can save
enough power and money to run your entire house for a full day. A little change can equal a big difference.
When I find myself stuck on a
scene I am writing or struggling with a blog post, sometimes a change of
scenery is all I need to get the imagination flowing again. It may be as simple as moving from the porch
to my favorite recliner in the front room or something more entailed such as
packing everything up and hitting a coffee house or the beach for a whole new
view. Believe me, it works. One of my Twitter friends, David Brown aka
@elenchera, does the same thing. He will
haul his writing to a coffee shop away from the distractions at home and most
of the time the words come easier.
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| At least it's warmer |
If you’re tired of the way the
house looks, rearrange the furniture, buy new drapes, or simply change the
pictures on the wall. If you’re frustrated
with looking at the same mess every morning in the mirror, then dye your hair,
grow a beard, or go from glasses to contacts or vice versa. Change the look of your lawn by planting
flowers or shrubs. Break the monotony of
life by adding something new to your week.
It’ll add a spark to your day and give you a new perspective.
Perhaps that’s why I enjoy these
months so much. By their very nature
they are about change. The house changes
with decorations. The menus change with
holiday dishes and delights, which changes the aromas in the house. Even the clothes we wear take on a different
appearance and our calendar fills up with festive activities instead of just boring
business meetings. The season forces our
eyes to look at things differently, to be made more aware of those in our
lives. I mean, you can’t necessarily buy
them a gift without thinking about them to some degree even if it’s “Oh my god,
what will they want!” You may have ignored
them all year, busy with your own life, but now you’re made aware of your negligence
as holiday meals and gatherings are planned and you have to rearrange
things. That’s still change.
Embrace these months and the
weather changes. On January 2nd, though the
cold weather may still be here, the rest of life returns to ordinary. However, you don’t have to allow it to be
business as usual. You can keep it from
staying the same as it’s always been and leave the rut you find yourself in. Every quarter in big red marker put on your
calendar “Change something!” and then do it!
Anything. Keep your life fresh;
your eyes open. Keep your life alive and
crisp, avoiding the humid muck of stagnation. Relish
in the change of the seasons and stretch yourself in the year to come, enjoying
the change that life throws at you and that you will create for yourself.
Oh, and bundle up out there. Another cold front is coming in.
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