Something Sweet with Susan

If you had asked me about my feelings of winter in TN at any time before January 2025 my answer would have been, “I hate it.”

It is dark in middle Tennessee by 5:00 p.m. during the winter months.  The days are short, it is cold, everything outside is dead, and there is very little sunshine.  It can be very depressing after a few weeks.  It often makes me feel as if the weight of the world is on my shoulders.  The darkness is such a heavy feeling.  My description of Winter – gray, dark and dead.

So what happened this year?  What made it different?  My life was very busy from July through December last year.  I kept telling myself, “Retired people are not supposed to be this busy.”  Once the holidays were behind me, I was tired and knew that I needed rest.  For once in my life, I focused on the need to be indoors and things I could accomplish inside my home rather than focusing on what I couldn’t do outside. I have been enjoying the slower pace, reading books, watching television and working on my cookbook.  There have even been a few days I stayed in my pajamas all day!

My husband and I share the love and need of sunshine and fresh air, but Spring will be here before we know it and we will be back outside doing the things we love and the busyness will start all over again.  I guess it’s taken me 62 years to learn to enjoy ALL the seasons and it’s ok to take a season of rest.

“For everything there is a season,
and a time for every purpose under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1