Rain. Rain? In Minnesota?!? In winter??!!??
As puddles deepened, the temperature fell.
Clumps of slush froze in place.
Long stretches of ice now shape the terrain.
Even weeks later,
a simple walk requires full attention and a little luck.
Snow has eluded us, so we look out on ice and
patches of frozen grass.
I’m not sure who likes this weather.
It is equal opportunity slippery
regardless of your preferences.
As for me?
I cannot shake a certain degree of, well, crabbiness.
Count me solidly in the camp of people
who look forward to winter,
and by that I mean snow!
And as the ‘near misses’ on puddles of ice drag on,
my mood is not improving.
This is not the stuff of deep depression.
More just a low level hum of crankiness.
What am I/are we to do with this attitude?
When what we want isn’t lining up with ‘what is?’
I know what you’re going to say…
it’s something I say often enough to others:
look for and lean into the positive.
Double down on what you are thankful for.
Bring yourself back in alignment with your senses.
And indeed those reminders are
what keeps “crabby” from descending
into more serious expressions of unhappiness.
But there is another side to this whole experience.
A side equally true, which is that I AM crabby.
I DO wish we could get on with a real Minnesota winter.
I DON’T LIKE trying to walk my dogs atop a patchwork of ice.
In the spirit of being Wildly Present,
might I propose a compromise…
that, while thankful and in close proximity to positivity,
we hold with care the less desirable feelings
that reside also within us.
That we acknowledge discomfort even as we
learn to live with it.
And we grant peace and permission, within and without,
to be all of who we are.
Even the ill-tempered, ungracious, sometimes petulant humans
that we are fully capable of being.
Indeed it’s those parts of ourselves that can nudge us toward honesty
when we might otherwise opt for polite denial of our mood.
So I propose that we bring a modicum of kindness and understanding
toward those parts of ourselves
recognizing that they keep us honest
even with the truth about ice.
