Surviving Winter In Colorado
"We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting." - Samuel Johnson
I've learned that it's easier to endure most things when I'm looking forward to something, and the long Colorado winters are no exception. For many Coloradans, the winter itself is eagerly anticipated, because winter brings great skiing and snowboarding and hockey. For me, though, winter sports hold little pleasure and I long for the glorious Colorado summertime.
Every year, the anticipation of warm weather intensifies right about now, in February, after the Super Bowl hype is over, in the dead zone while there is little to do outside of work. The flip side of this equation is that midwinter is often the most productive time of year for me, but it is also the least joyful.
Having lived in Colorado now for 15 years, I've learned to cope with the windy, cold, dry, and sometimes snowy wintertime by clinging to two lifelines: gardening and baseball. Right around Christmas I start receiving the garden seed catalogs, the one category of junk mail that I treasure. I love to page through them and dream of the coming growing season. I'll draw and re-draw a dozen garden plans each year, continuing long after the obsessive preparation achieves any actual gardening benefit, for the sole purpose of raising my spirits. On the occasional warm day, I'll sometimes go out to the garden and turn the compost pile, and I'll even make half-hearted attempts at digging compost into the frozen ground.
Growing up in Virginia, I would long for the smell of the fresh-mown grass as the sign that baseball had arrived. Here in Colorado, baseball season begins before grass-mowing season, and in our dry climate even mown grass loses some of its delicious scent. So, instead, I greedily await news of spring training, roster moves, injuries, and the development of the young pitchers.
Whatever you eagerly expect in your life at this time of year, whether it be baseball, gardening, March Madness, golf, or the end of a school year, I wish you joy in your anticipation. Looking forward to it is half the fun.
