Here Is January

Do you like winter? It's not my favorite season as far as the weather goes, but there are other reasons why I like winter--at least now that I don't have to go out twice a day to drive school children. I don't mind looking at the snow if I don't have to drive in it. Winter was the pits when I had to go on the road in all kinds of weather. But now that my children's school days are history I am free to stay home when the roads are nasty. I can just say "I'm not going" and that's the end of it. Age has its benefits!

The part of winter I like is having time to do things that get ignored in the other months of the year. I have time to write, scrapbook, quilt, crochet, or work on whatever other wild ideas have roosted in my head. I haven't gotten to scrapbooking or quilting yet this winter but they're on the list.

But then, as much as I enjoy doing this kind of thing in the "off season," I'm always ready to shift gears and pick up the next season's job list when spring comes.

Here is a poem I clipped from a newspaper many years ago that expresses my thoughts.

 

Here is January

by Florence D. Brown

 

Here is January, partly done---

Not as rare as June with its warming sun,

Or soft like April with shades of green,

Or hot like July with mosquitos and screen,

It's January---cold and iced in pure white,

When the day seems so short, and long is the night.

 

January's good to the children around,

With its ice and good skating, and snow on the ground,

It brings to the feeders many colorful birds,

Whose beauty and swiftness defy written words.

It brings sunrises glorious over snow-covered rills

And breathtaking sunsets beyond the far hills.

 

There's beauty in January, and time to remember:

We're closer to spring than we were in December!