It is early Spring in Colorado, which means that it can be below freezing or 70 degrees in any 24 hours. Maybe this is a lesson in building character through adaptability and resiliency. Honestly, though, I have enough character to last the rest of my life and don’t need any more lessons. But there seems no way to stop them, so this winter I decided to embrace them.
On freezing days bundled up and walked many miles with my Newfoundland, who adores the cold, and headed to the gym. On blue-sky days, when the wind was not howling, I enjoyed the view from the top of a ski run. I went tubing for the first time in forever and went snowshoeing with a friend. When the weather was warm and dry, I did a couple of hikes, and briefly tested out trail running. And then it was back to bundling up and heading to the gym as the temperature plummeted.
At some point, it occurred to me that embracing winter was much like dealing with any other challenge. There is an Outward Bound saying, that if you cannot get out of something you have to go in deeper. This is true on a mountain trail, on a ski run, or in our personal lives. There is power in embracing life’s difficulties rather than truncating our journey because the way seems hard.
Perhaps this is the gift of a Colorado springtime, an assurance that we can live through any winter if we have hope for warmer days. That we can survive the darkness when we believe there will be blue skies.
Wishing you changing weather and the hope for warmer days. Shabbat Shalom