I live in Calgary Canada. Our winters are typically long and cold and I am always longing for them to end.
Here are a few reasons why:
1) Dog walks in the freezing cold are excruciating. Poor puppy doesn’t even walk on all fours. He will hop or hold one paw up off the ice and snow alternating paws as he goes.
2) Pushing full shopping carts through the slush and snow is no small feat especially with kids in tow. Just yesterday there I was, an overfilled cart, a snow-covered parking lot. It took all my energy getting from the exit doors to my vehicle, with two stops along the way to pick up the boxes that kept falling off the bottom rack of my cart.
3) Suiting up to go outside is time-consuming and requires patience. If you have had the pleasure of putting gloves or mittens on a child you will understand. Anybody familiar with the Robert Munsch story, “Thomas’s Snowsuit?” Then there’s that. For me though, I tend to get a bit annoyed at the ratio of time spent getting the items on the kids to time spent actually outside.
4) When I wake up in the morning right now it’s dark. Before I finish work it’s dark. Dark means its night and at night I go to sleep. When It’s dark, I feel tired. Dark hours are way more unproductive for me than light hours. I like to be productive.
Sometimes Calgary Winters make me FEEL Dissatisfied, Miserable, in despair or Desperate to get out of here. All of these feelings are real, I am experiencing them, but only because I choose to believe my thoughts from above.
Our Calgary winters are typically long and cold but it’s really not as bad as my brain makes it out to be sometimes.
Here are some reasons why:
1) Watching our puppy run through fresh deep untouched snow is both entertaining and exhilarating. He runs in circles, he jumps. His excitement infects me with excitement. I love it.
2) I am not a fan of being cold. In the “Would you rather” game that my family likes to play around the dinner table I will always rather the hot lava death to the ocean iceberg water death. The silver lining to the shopping cart during the winter is that I push that thing so hard through the snow, I get my workout for the day and I’m breaking a sweat by the time I get to the vehicle. I have to take my jacket off I’m so warm! I can’t really complain about that.
3) Suiting up for the snow does take time, yes, but by age 4 they are getting the hang of things, they can do a lot of the work on their own. If my big kids are asked just right and they are in the mood and all the stars align that day they can be amazing little helpers too! The getting ready is so worth the sledding, building snowmen and making memories.
4) I can’t change the sun rising and setting when it does. But I did realize first hand this winter that there are places in the world that have long, wet, muddy, gloomy, cloudy winter days. In Calgary, we have lots of sunshine, blue skies, and Chinooks. We are so lucky.
Sometimes Calgary winters are Fun, Magical, and just plain Perfect, but only when I choose to think they are.
What kind of Winter will you decide to have?
