trying to survive the winter, still

In my effort to find the good things about winter (because if I don't I will lose my sanity!), I paid extra attention to the trees and the sky today....

Big sky, blue sky, breathe....

things to love about winter... ?

I've decided I no longer love anything about winter. Except that it ends and then it's spring and sunny and "everyone's in love and the flowers pick themselves...." January and her single digits can fuck off. Excuse me, for that.

I guess one good thing about winter is that it makes going on vacation that much more exciting. This weekend...

Until then I am surviving by binging on chocolate and reading wonderful poems and making feeble attempts to write my own.

Here's a poem from Jeffrey McDaniel, one of the first contemporary poets I discovered and fell in love with while I was still in high school:

"The Secret"

When you were sleeping on the sofa
I put my ear to your ear and listened
to the echo of your dreams.

That is the ocean I want to dive in,
merge with the bright fish,
plankton and pirate ships.

I walk up to people on the street that kind of look like you
and ask them the questions I would ask you.

Can we sit on a rooftop and watch stars dissolve into smoke
rising from a chimney?
Can I swing like Tarzan in the jungle of your breathing?

I don't wish I was in your arms,
I just wish I was peddling a bicycle
toward your arms.

Six Things To Love About Winter

I realized that in order to get through another Minnesota winter, I have to hold on to the good things about winter. Some of you might be saying, "Good things about winter? Isn't that an oxymoron or something?" But it's true, there are good things about winter--(they're just harder to appreciate because it. gets. so. cold. And dark so damn early, what's up with that?)

So hopefully this will be an ongoing series throughout the winter, to help us get through it (for those of you who live where temps don't drop below zero...this is what you're missing out on! ha)

So, let's begin. Things I love about winter include

#1: PINE. Pine trees, pine cones, soy-wax candles that smell like pine, snow-covered pines... (the little snow we had melted already but soon there will be photos of that, I'm sure). It smells so refreshing, so clean.

#2: COZY SLIPPERS. 'nuff said.

#3: Layers, layers, layers. Tanks under thermals under second-hand sweaters, paired, of course, with worn-in denim and wool socks. I love using the smorgasbord approach when I dress, and winter is perfect for that. 

#4: BEER and DENIM (did I already mention denim? I really love it). Don't these two go so well together? And of course beer is good in the summer but there's also something cozy about wearing your favorite jeans (and layers!) and having a beer that was brewed in small-town Wisconsin whose label has PINE TREES on it (see #1).

#5: Um, beer again. Is this list really only five things? See, the cold's already getting to my brain.

#6: CITRUS. Everyone knows that winter is the best time to buy citrus in the north. I had the best orange the other day. So sweet and juicy. And it's packed with Vitamin C--great for those colds (one of the not-so-good things winter brings but shh... we're only talking about good things right now).

That's all for now...going to sit by my sun lamp for a while...