We had a major winter storm blowing for most of this last trip up to the family cabin. I’m guessing there was only a couple feet of new snowfall but fierce winds blew it into big drifts and that’s what caused all the fun. We do so LOVE weather, the hubster and I! This is a view through a back window. The door, just a couple feet over, is completely blocked and will just have to wait till spring thaw to open again.
Winter is our favorite time of year to vacation up here, which some people understand completely and some people never will. I think it’s similar to dog people and cat people. The guy who’s getting ready to replace our fence down in Boise was excited and congratulatory when he found out we were up here during the storm, while a friend from L.A. just shakes her head and says, every single time we come up, I wouldn’t do it. I’d freeze to death. And yet she skis (in winter, on snow!) so I’m confused. What’s the difference? Is winter not just as cold when you’re hurtling down a mountainside at 30 miles an hour? In fact, isn’t it even colder with the wind chill?
People. Personally, I don’t think we’re anywhere near as rational as we like to think. More like big bundles of unconscious bias in fact, overlaid with a very thin veneer of reason which is of course the part we preen ourselves on and strut about holding up to one another because it makes us feel so special.
I do it myself. Which is totally ridiculous, I know, but it can’t be helped. Oh well. We humans are just so incredibly absurd and vulnerable, y’know? And there’s so much to love in that.
The Odd and Unmentionable 
Dang it, you’re right again! We aren’t as rational as we like to think. Hell, some of us haven’t got a rational bone in our bodies. And that, my friend, is scary! I try not to preen, but I mean really, in the face of the political drama thrust under my nose every day…I have to preen.
I suspect it is not the cold that frightens your LA friend so much as the isolation that comes hand in hand with snow blocking your door and encroaching upon your windows.
Me? I would embrace the coldl AND the isolation, while preening to my solitary heart’s content. I’m really a menace to society. :-}
You always make me laugh! I have the most vivid memories of you snowshoeing up there in frigid temps without a hat…I almost added that vignette in this post actually. It made quite an impression on me!
Dia,
These are the days I dream of and treasure, especially as we move along our individual yet parallel life “conveyor belts”. This past week overlooking the Salmon River and surrounded by the Sawtooth and White Cloud Mountains…steeped in Silence that is even deeper in meditations shared with each other…a warm fire in the wood burning stove and plenty of food in the cupboards…the more snow the better.
This past year, I have been coached to write five things each morning that I am grateful for. During this last week, it spontaneously spilled over to full pages each day. Gratitude started as an exercise and has grown in to a sacred practice, even a living part of who I really am…and becoming.
At the top of that list…is getting to share all of this with my mate. Being well mated is not always “easier or more gentle”, but for sure faster and sweeter.
Gratefully yours,
The Hubster