“Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind.”
King Lear
“In the bleak midwinter, frost wind made moan. Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter, long ago.”
Christina Rossetti
There’s something about Winter that I love. I sometimes refer to myself as a cold weather enthusiast. Call me crazy! There is in this an echo of what my ancestors endured through the cold climes after the Ice Age. I can imagine that for them life was stripped down to the essentials.
This is what I wish to embrace in my experience, the fullness of life stripped to the essentials. I share this desire in common with Thoreau, not bad company as it turns out. Moments like this are not common in our climate-controlled, creature-comforted culture, they must be sought. And the handy thing is, the opportunity awaits just outside the door!
There is a current trend for taking ice bath plunges and cold morning showers as a health treatment. Devotees of the Win Hoff (the Iceman) Method seek intense cold along with other practices for their immune boosting and related benefits. This is not my purpose. Not yet anyway.
As I am now older, the cold seems to penetrate more deeply into the hands, the feet, the nose, and the ears, which soon absorb their effects. This is the entrance fee to enjoying Winter and it is uncomfortable. But it encourages me to keep moving and helps the furnace of the muscle mass to throw off heat and send warm blood to these extremities.
Despite this discomfort and perhaps because of it, I love the cold in the Winter. I feel more present to life and more alive with the wind and snow in my face. It brings the blood to the surface and reddened by the elements; I feel at one with them. This sense of presence may happen in the other seasons, but it is altogether a milder sensation and easily passed off.
“People claim they enjoy winter but what they actually mean is they enjoy winter as a livener, a quick tease of the elements before resorting to their central heating. For anyone working outdoors winter hurts.”
The Wood in Winter, John Lewis-Stempel
This fact, as noted by the author, is certainly true. Time spent at low temperatures will make the eventual warmth indoors feel more luxurious. Yet, I enjoy those moments when the howl of the wind, its cold searching fingers track the opening of my neck gaiter and the damp chill in the air makes my heartbeat more quickly.
I honor the role of Wintertime as a livener. This just seems true. It should be said that I don’t have to work out of doors as do some, but I often do my morning meditation on the porch outside, bundled to the hilt in wool and down.
“There’s no bad weather,”; say the Scandinavians, “only inadequate clothing!” So, out I go, with hand warmers, reveling in the penetrating moment, quickened and alive to the welcomed discomfort, the free gift of Winter. And yes, it certainly enhances the warmth and hot beverage awaiting inside! It’s fine, call me crazy! But have you considered the benefits?
Mark Chaffin