A Chilling Effect

I’ve heard it said that the only constant in life is change.

I expect this is the professional world. I expect it where life’s adventures take us geographically. I expect it in the forward momentum of life, like getting married and having our daughter.

What takes me by surprise, though, is how some of my personal preferences change so drastically from time to time. I’m not talking about what foods I like…tastes alter as we move through life, I know that (didn’t we all hate peas as children?). I’m talking about other things…like an unexpected appreciation for a type of storytelling that has always turned me off before.

Or, more recently, in the midst of a mild winter, the fact that I miss snow.

Long time readers and those who know me will pause here, and wonder who hacked my blog and is writing this post as a joke. But, I assure you, it’s actually me, of mostly sound mind, wondering how, exactly, I’ve arrived at a point in life where I would prefer to see some snow on the ground. I’ve even found photos of warm winter scenes popping up on my Tumblr feed, and wondering, “did I really just post that? What happened here?”

I’m not sure. It’s not that I’ve lost my fascination for the coast. Indeed, if you ask me at any given time where I would prefer to be, I would almost always reply that I would rather be on a beach. The ocean shakes me to the core with its grandeur, and I think that it always will. Lately, though, I’ve noticed myself missing the fact that there’s a bit of a slowing down during the winter that hasn’t occurred in the Southeast this year because of consistently Spring-like weather. Perhaps that’s because the slowing down is so profoundly evident here. We’ve sort of skipped winter all around, it seems, and, while I take the season best in small doses, I think I’d at least rather have a bit of it to grumble about than to not have it at all.

This pining for a winter of some substance is fitting considering that an upcoming life change will be taking us back to New England soon. Perhaps this change in perspective is providential, or perhaps there’s some deeply rooted coping mechanism that’s shifting into gear. Whatever the case, its odd that something so fundamentally a part of my personality would change like this. I still love hot temperatures, though, so perhaps its an “adding-to” that’s taking place, instead of a replacing.

Change is a good thing, right?

Photo Copyright by Austin-Lee Barron. Used by permission. 

2 Comments

  1. Oh my gosh, it’s like you’re my twin. I adore the beach, any beach, and I hate snow. This snowless winter has gotten to me in ways I didn’t think were possible, because I do kind of miss the snow. Not too much though. I’d take another winter like this in a heartbeat. 🙂

  2. I’m sort of feeling like “don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone” with the snow thing. I saw it in the forecast this week, and got excited. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me 🙂

    Still…the idea of sitting in the sunshine with a drink bearing a little umbrella in my hand…I could take that right now…

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