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Plenty to enjoy in the winter wonderland we call home

Hey, it’s back. Winter! Time to go sledding and skiing and skating.

Treena Mielke

BLACK PRESS

Hey, it’s back.

Winter!

Time to go sledding and skiing and skating. Time to revel in the winter wonderland we call home.

Or not!

Well, whether we participate in winter fun stuff or not, this much I know to be true.

It is surprisingly chilly, and — once your eyes recover from snow blindness — surprisingly beautiful out there.

I don’t love winter by any stretch of my imagination, but sometimes I sort of like it.

And when I am not thinking about how cold I am and shivering under my fur-lined parka, which means I am in my car and the heater is working, or in my house and the heater is working, I like gazing at the stark beauty of white on white.

It’s nice.

Winter’s beauty, like a black and white photo, is simple and quiet and still.

I think it would be a good visual for meditation, if one weren’t too cold to be still and not shiver right out of the meditation mode and into a hot bath.

I like quiet and still, I think, but then I remember how Mother Nature comes along with her many cans of spray paint and colours in the wonderful, magnificent colours of spring.

I like that, too.

But that won’t happen for many days yet, even though I heard the groundhog did see his shadow today, which I think is a good thing.

But back to a cup that is half full (whether it be coffee, snow or water) and another neat thing about winter (particularly a winter complete with snow and temperatures that remind you to be thankful someone invented fire).

I like winter because of the opportunity it affords to be either the giver or the receiver of generosity, kindness and good old-fashioned neighbourliness.

I opened my garage door the other day to see kindness in action.

“You shouldn’t be doing that,” I said, but feebly, to the gentleman at the other end of the snow shovel clearing my driveway. “You have a bad back.”

He told me just to forget about that for now, briefly interrupting his steady rhythm of tossing snowy shovelfuls of the white stuff to the side of the driveway, to give me an equally snowy hug.

I drive away feeling all humbled and happy to have such a good friend, especially since I only left him and my husband two little muffins to enjoy with their coffee later, scooping up the remainder of the nice big muffins to bring to my girlfriends.

Which reminds me of another thing nice about winter!

Coffee!

Coffee is a rich drink, hot and sinfully delicious and probably full of bad things that will eventually kill us.

But regardless, it sure tastes good!

Seriously though, it’s not just the coffee that is an anti-winter remedy. It’s the friends you drink the coffee with.

It’s so nice to take a few minutes (or hours) to have a break and enjoy a coffee with friends. Friends are the double-double that make the drink a little sweeter, a little creamier and just nicer.

The bottom line is winter should not be all doom and gloom.

Which reminds me of one more thing about winter I like.

The end! I like the end of winter.

Treena Mielke is editor of the Rimbey Review, a sister publication of the Sylvan Lake News.