Since moving back north nearly 15 years ago I have appreciated and more recently learned to enjoy winter. After all, after six years in Alabama it was my choice to move back to four seasons. I don’t particularly like the frigid temperatures, but most of what I don’t like is the long nights and the shortened hours of sunlight that comes with them. The past few winters in my old house were not good for my mental health. I sincerely began to think that I had S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder). I’ve found that running through winter helps, it warms me up and gets me closer to the sun’s rays. But it was during these past few winters that my desire to move into a different house took flight and drove me to convince my husband that the time to move into a different house had finally arrived.
This time last year I looked at the house I am living in now for the first time. I instantly noticed and fell in love with the flooding of sunshine that poured (and continues to) through the many windows and the skylight. After we moved in on January 31 I found myself staring into the snow-covered woods out my back door in awe of mother nature.
Between the few short weeks that have past since turning our clocks back an hour I instantly fell back into my dread of the approaching shortened days. Then last week it snowed! The ground was covered and the sun reflected off the beautiful white blanket that was laid on my yard and in the woods. MY house, the house I fell in love with 10 months ago opened itself up to the flood and I’ve found that this past week I’ve been breathing easier even on these cold winter days that have arrived much sooner than in the past. I can’t recall the last time I was this excited to see snow.
