Temperatures have been so cold so fast this year that I think I have already gone into my mid-January hibernation mode. This starts to happen when it’s cold and dark outside when I get up to go to work and cold and dark by the time I get home. I just don’t want to do anything other than go to work, come home and change into my jammies so I can hide under a blanket to stay warm.
Those little errands that I would gladly do while it is warm and light outside get put aside until the weekend. Then even when the weekend arrives I still don’t feel like venturing very far. Things that I thought were important are things I find I can easily do without. Most shopping can be done on-line. Sophie our 19 month old dog even likes to snuggle more, curling up with us on the couch after dinner until it is time to go to bed.
I realize that I haven’t posted a blog since September and it isn’t because I haven’t wanted to or even that I haven’t spent some time thinking about it. It is mostly because, well – my brain is already hibernating – closed for the winter. The little bit of thinking I do is reserved for work, where more often than I would like it seems to be where my brain cells go to die.
David reminded me recently that sometimes when things go badly - or even just not as hoped, a concentrated effort to make a difference in one small little area of our world can be what turns the whole mess around - my words, not his. When we face a problem complicated by a series of things seemingly outside our control, it is easy to want to hibernate, to withdraw ourselves from the problem, separating "it" from ourselves. It then becomes "not our problem," as well as it being "not in our control." As a result, we freeze our problems in place. We cause it and ourselves to hibernate.
A body at rest remains at rest. By challenging ourselves to find a single action that we can take that would improve the situation, we often are able to break the logjam. Yet, all too often we impoverish our lives by eliminating choices that are fully available to us, but are out of the "normal" range of choices we consider.
The single action that I can do right at this moment to improve my situation is to get out of my comfortable jammies, go to the gym and do a big work out. Once I am done, I will sit in the sauna for a couple minutes so that when I step outside and it is still only 19 degrees, the air will actually feel refreshing. All this so that when I fill my plate again tonight with more turkey, stuffing and gravy - I won't feel quite so guilty, but will once again feel thankful. On the other hand, perhaps what I really need to do before I do anything else is to take a nap with David and little Sophie between us resting her head on my arm.
