It’s been a while since I remember having a winter this cold and snow filled. As a child, I’d prey for winters like this. Having school cancelled weekly, sledding all day, and having snow ball fights with my unsuspecting and non participating sisters, as they walked in the house, were just a few highlights from latter day.
I’m finding this excitement harder to grasp as an adult, although I still get the giddy excitement in the first moments of snowfall, every time. The inner me still unconsciously surfaces, as if I’m still in elementary school and am meeting up with old friends, in 10 year old form, on top of the local hill in the morning.
But those days are feeling further and further away lately.
Snow now has come to hold a different meaning in my adult form, with new responsibilities. Unsafe driving conditions and getting stuck in my apartment for days at a time are some newer options I have to consider when I see those first flakes. But it also holds with it a new sense of freedom. As an adult, I have the transportation and the power to take advantage of activities for myself solely, and not for my mother to decide.
If I want to head to West Rock for a hike or dig out the snowboard for a quick trip to Mount Southington for a night, I can. I have access to much more landscape than my old neighborhood, when I was four feet tall and 10.
The problem is, sometimes I forget that.
Being responsible is a full time job and can get in the way of realizations. Paying the bills, going grocery shopping, or even those lame television shows we get stuck in, are aspects of the way life can go these days. So, presently, I write this post for you, but mostly for me, as a reminder to make sure and be attentive to the present moments before us. Because winter is far from over at this point.
A short car ride with a small sense of motivation is all you need to step outside of your mental block or routine and become that new and improved inner you again. The same you that nearly jumped out the window in anticipation of the day of sledding that come along with a hefty snowfall.
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