Ahhh...The Sights and Sounds of Winter...

Hail, Winter!  You are the reason why people love the other seasons of the year!

You inspire us to think ahead when your storms are forecast.  (Is there enough TP, milk, bread, alcohol, and smokes in the house to get through?  Do we know where the snow shovel and ice scrapers are?)

You require us to be resourceful and strong.  (Can't find the salt for the sidewalk?  How about kitty litter?  Maybe table salt?  Sand?  Pushing snow with the shovel creates muscles.  How much can we throw in order to stay outside the shortest amount of time possible?  Do we know the condition of our hearts?)

You teach us to be patient and hopeful.  (Hopeful that Spring will come early.  Hopeful that the furnace will keep working and that the power stays on. Hopeful that our newfound human togetherness inside the house can be endured without snarling at our loved ones too much.)

Your beauty stuns us, for a day.  The pristine fields of newfallen snow.  The tree boughs bent low with the weight of the white stuff...so pure...so quiet.  Gorgeous!

And then the other sights and sounds and feelings:
     *The sounds of the snowplows scraping the pavement, throwing what we have already shoveled out back up into our driveways.
     *The pitter-patter of little ice balls hitting the windows.
     *The weather alerts and school closings that run along the bottom of our favorite TV stations.
     *The pock-marked snow as the rain falls and makes dirty slush out of your lovely white stuff.
     *The road salt all over our dark cars.  The road dirt all over our light ones.
     *The delightful smell of thick soups and stews coming from our kitchens, filling our bellies' needs to hibernate and fill up in order to stave off the boredom of long nights...and thwarting our desires to be "bikini ready" the minute the season breaks.
     *The rounds of chapped lips that defy medication.
   
And last-but-not-least, the horrifying realization that Winter isn't even a month old!  There's more to come, and every day is a crap-shoot.  We just have to get through it!

I yield to the English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley in his poem, "Ode to the West Wind", when he says, "O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?"

Yeah, Percy.  I'm with ya!  Go, Winter!  Give us your worst!  Sooner or later, you will give way to sunshine, warmth, and flowers again...