By Casey Hoskins
Winter means spending a lot of time indoors, pondering what the sun felt like, if it will ever show itself again, why I wanted to live where it snowed…you know, normal January stuff. I look forward to the slower pace every year but when it gets here I am a grump because I can’t seem to move any faster than, well you know, molasses in January. I think most people get some form of the winter blues, I get the winter slows.
I find the older I get the more active I need to be. In the summer I am up with the sun and down by 9 o’clock most nights. I am a morning person, I know that is foreign to a lot of you, so staying up after 9 p.m. is not really an option for me. Since I’m up to see the first rays of sunlight I get going on the multitude of projects I have lined out for myself. In the winter those projects have to move indoors and because the sun has all but disappeared by 5 p.m., I am feeling sluggish and ready to curl up in a blanket. How I survive every January is a mystery to me. Being painfully aware of the new obligations I’ve put on myself this year I’ve decided to come up with some ways to keep moving while the winter blues blow.
We all know getting exercise is important, so we can check that off as a consistent winter thing to do. I also like to keep my hands busy while I watch entirely too much television. I used to be in the form of cross-stitching or embroidery, but my hands are not capable of that for any length of time anymore so now it is a puzzle. I’ve heard it helps with memory and neural pathways, bonus! Let’s see what else…trying out a new craft. I will not go and buy all the things required to do a new craft so usually this means I invite someone into the shop to teach a class. (This is happening in February so keep an eye out for that on Facebook.) My other favorite thing to do is have dinner with a friend. Wintertime is the best time for me to do this because it seems to be the only time I slow down enough. I always feel uplifted, and it takes care of a three-hour block in my evening, guaranteeing I will go to bed well after 7:30 p.m. I am not in my upper years yet and shouldn’t be doing that, but it happens! If you’re judging me on that particular point please come and workout with me at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning. Well, that’s it for this week. I had this whole other article prepared but it was a bit heavier than I wanted so instead you get to read my ramblings. Go and find that elusive sunshine however you can. It won’t be too long before we are all back up to speed and wondering where the time went.
