Hasn’t our January weather been interesting??  Do crunchy snows underfoot, brisk breezes and wood fires make your heart sing?  Snow-lovers can’t complain here; we’ve had snow since Christmas.  TV weather people are much more animated when the weather is “bad”; life probably is a bit boring if no blizzards are in view and their radar shows that little is happening.   I just personally wish that those fronts were less befuddled about their paths.  Do we draw pails of water in case of power outage --- or not?   Should we stock up on essentials like popcorn and hot chocolate?

Our feral cats would agree.  They have become quite comfortable with humans and being scratched behind the ears, to the point where they are now sitting expectantly on window sills and hanging on door handles when they see us coming.  In nasty weather they also excel at looking pathetic.  However, they aren’t domesticated enough to be inside, though they may think they are!  I can just see them peering down from the high display shelves in the kitchen or peeking out of the bookcases.

Along with most people, I probably recall childhood winters with a slightly skewed memory.   I do think it is accurate to say that there was more constant snow-cover where I grew up near Rochester, although our snow right now is staying long enough.  There were definitely times when we could dig out snow forts in the drifts piled up along the east side of the house and we made snowmen that lasted for weeks.  Then there was the severe winter when milk trucks couldn’t get through for two or three days though that was a bit unusual! I wasn’t an enthusiastic outdoors child in the winter; I reluctantly suffered through the obligatory “would you please get outside for a while?” afternoons.  During my teen years I did enjoy ice skating, coasting and occasional tobogganing.  Those usually involved friends, which made the chilly out of doors much more endurable.   Especially if there were moonlight parties with campfires!

Even this winter, with no gatherings, there are good times to celebrate.   Winter commemorations begin next Monday with Martin Luther King Day when we celebrate a person of determination and courage who spear-headed change.   Then one granddaughter has a January birthday; she turns fourteen!   In February there’s Presidents’ Day, Valentine’s Day, four family birthdays (another granddaughter turns 17!!) and Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 17th.  The Tuesday before Lent is “Doughnut Day”, “Pancake Day” or “Fat Tuesday” depending on where you grew up; on the church calendar it is “Shrove Tuesday”.  These celebratory times lighten the winter gloom a bit; they are happy spots on the calendar.

In winter I am always reminded that I really should buy stock in moisturizer companies.   I have a bottle of lotion or hand cream at each sink.  Too much sun and working in the garden has made the skin on my hands and arms dry-dry-dry ---- especially in winter. So every time I use soap and water, (which these days, is often!) my skin requires a shot of something so that it won’t crinkle like paper mache.   My mother used to mix her own hand lotion; glycerin and rose water.  I haven’t been that ambitious but I do remember that it smelled wonderful.  SIGH!!  There are so many things to “treat” as we age; skin, stiff joints, sore muscles, organs that refuse to work properly and minds that stubbornly clutch at the comfortable rut of sameness.  The functional medicine people insist that we don’t have to fall apart this way if we will only sleep well, eat properly, keep moving, take a few supplements, meditate and have a good attitude. Marvelous goals, and while I’ve done some of those things, so far good sleep eludes me, nor am I able to totally stifle the desire for the foods they insist are driving this aging process; cookies, artisan bread, and chocolate.  Well actually, sugar!  And I must admit too, that occasionally my attitude needs adjusting.

There are so many food plans; the Paleo Diet, the Keto Diet, the Mediterranean Diet, the Dr. Atkins Diet, the Vegan Diet, etc.  And there are contrary opinions about each.  “Take a pro-biotic; it will help your digestion!” / “Pro-biotics are terrible for your stomach!”   “Tomatoes are wonderful; full of lycopene!” / “If you have arthritis, avoid tomatoes!”   Having worked in food and nutrition for many years, I know the various recommendations and the rebuttals although some have changed as more research is done.  After perusing these studies my personal philosophy, which, I’ve already admitted needs adjusting around carbs, is to eat a variety of many foods in small amounts.  I have begun eating more salads, so I am really looking forward to home-grown lettuce and more of that fresh broccoli.

The thought of broccoli takes me to another injection of happiness in January that comes by way of the seed catalogs.   There has been no time to seriously look at them until now.   So I am in process, as is usual, making lists of “necessary” seeds and plants.  This list will undoubtedly have to be pared, separating wants from needs, not only to cut costs, but also --- as my husband reminds me annually ---- because he is not digging any more garden beds; there is only so much room and we have only so much energy!!

The Christmas season is over ---- actually was over as of Epiphany, January 6^th.  But we all recognize the need for the spirit of the season to linger.  In truth, just lingering isn’t enough considering all that is going on today.  The spirit that is Christmas needs to flourish and flood all of us; it is the only antidote to the off-the-wall hatred and violence.  Howard Thurman* penned these verses.  Kerm and I liked them so much when we saw them that we used them in our Christmas card one year.  “When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, then the work of Christmas begins ---- to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among brothers, to make music in the heart.”  Now is when we move from six weeks of celebration to a little more industry ---- getting busy with what needs doing.

It is often difficult to know where to start.   In the face of so much need it is easy to feel overwhelmed.   Some people seem destined to do large, extraordinary things --- who make the Six O’clock News, at the very end, to give us something good to remember; the knights in shining armor who lead groups, give huge donations and administer big programs.  They are the wealthy businessman who pays people’s bills, the small elementary school entrepreneur who designs bow ties and organizes large toy drives for other kids.  They are the Mother Teresas, the Bill and Melinda Gates, the Billy Grahams of the world.  And all communities have stellar people who fit this description on a slightly smaller scale.

But for most of us, our good deeds seem small and not at all notable, leading us to feel that we aren’t doing all that much.  Perhaps we should remember the elementary-school couplet: “Little drops of water; little grains of sand make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land.”** Often making a difference takes not so much skill or money on our parts as awareness.  It is noticing that a friend is sad --- and listening.  It is calling someone you know who is alone and probably lonely.  It is a kid, noticing that another child is isolated on the playground and needs a friend.   It is inviting the new neighbor in for pancakes (our neighbor does this).  It is expressing appreciation to people who are out there doing.  Maybe we need to forego dragon-slaying and just be ready to do what we can to make music in one or two hearts, whereever we can, with no expectation of fame.

Perhaps Mr. Thurman’s verses could be, for all of us, a kind of a mantra for 2021.  We humans have often, in expressive slang, “done a number” on this earth.  From ignorance or selfishness, we have messed up relationships with our fellowmen; those we know and those we may generalize as alien.  We have used our lakes, rivers and oceans as dumping stations, casually flung cartons and bags out of car windows, made the air dangerous to breathe for profit’s sake and filled our minds with the garbage of coarse entertainment and even worse ideologies.   If we simply try to live out those things as mentioned by Mr. Thurman, maybe we’ll shed some of our dubious behaviors and become unobtrusive angels on earth ---- quietly being there for those who need friends; spreading kindness and wisdom.   Little things add up.  If enough nearly weightless snowflakes get together, they can break the limb of a tree, clog a very large snowplow and create fine material for snowmen and fort-making.  And then there’s the sand --- and water ---- all tiny particles but all formidable in large quantities.  We can become formidable in a good way.

It is mid-January but spring is not that far away.  Owls on our hill are nesting right now.  In all this snow and cold they are keeping eggs warm.  Bulbs six inches down are stirring inside, contemplating putting out little green shoots.  COVID shots will be coming along for more and more people.   So in this year ahead of us -----may we be courageous and determined to live in a way that builds rather than tearing down.  And may all be well with you in a way that makes your heart sing.

Carol may be reached at: carol42wilde@htva.net.

*Howard Thurman----- American theologian, educator and civil rights leader.  1899-1981.

**”Little Things” by Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney.  1823-1908. See rest of poem for more.