Halfway through a half-assed winter, and the sun makes a glorious return, rising high and almost-hot, and suddenly it feels like the middle of March when it’s barely the second week in February. When we’ve barely had any winter at all. Standing in line to buy a pound of coffee and a tub of yogurt, I overhear someone talking about their climate grief, and then at the lumberyard I hear someone talking about how they started tapping two weeks earlier than usual and damned if they didn’t wish they’d made it three. The narrow gravel road we live on transitions between ice and mud and ice again, and Kyle tells me we’re going to need to increase the town’s budget for material; he’s been waging an ongoing war against the ruts and potholes opened by the constant freeze/thaw/freeze cycle and the big piles down at the town garage are disappearing fast. We’ve had two mud seasons already this winter, and it seem we might be on the cusp of a third. I vacillate between bemoaning the weather and wielding my own peculiar brand of stoic philosophy, which basically involves making up pithy affirmation sayings and then sharing them as broadly (and frequently) as possible, a past time which has not entirely endeared me to my family . “Comfort is where growth goes to die” is my favorite so far, though I acknowledge it’s not the most obvious response to a weak winter. But still: Comfort is where growth goes to die.
You gotta admit, it’s pretty damn good.
Music: Really digging this tune by Pony Bradshaw
Words: Really loved this book by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Ben Hewitt 
I like that: “Comfort is where growth goes to die”. Here’s my favorite: “Great are the uses of adversity”.
Hey Ben…It IS pretty damn good!
Hey Ben….It IS pretty damn good!
I’ve been wondering if people would start tapping trees already, since the weather has been right for it down here in PA. With the temps this warm now, I feel like we should get slammed with a storm in April when everyone’s been wearing short sleeves for weeks.
That is a beautiful picture of a very beautiful church! I might add “the comfort found there is the beginning of growth.” However I do find comfort in the death of winter!
How interesting, meanwhile in Arizona we are having the snowiest winter with a blowing blizzard today and yet more snow and dipping close to single digit temps, and the snow has been on the ground since November..
Happy Valentine’s Day. And after a nice dinner, some good chocolate and a nip of Dewars, I say “growth is overrated. “
Tho of course we can say that to our sons.
I used to worry alot about ‘climate change’, and now I welcome it…because I don’t believe anything the stupid tv says, and I think its much different than all of that. I miss the seasons sometimes, because now it mostly feels like summer all the time, but it doesn’t erase the fact that there is still some major living to do.
I love this piece, Ben!
awesome!
Bad snow years are hard on businesses that depend on winter tourist dollars from skiers and snowmobilers to pay their bills.