Seasons - written in early November

I started this post in early November, then put it aside to finish later and didn't get back to it until today....

My favorite season is late spring. Each day is a gift, when you can step outside unencumbered by the winter coat that has weighed you down for months. Dreaming of the sun warming my bare arms can keep me warm and contented nearly year-round. Still, I have never been one who liked to choose favorites. So, I sometimes choose summer as my favorite season, especially now that summer is likely to be my least-busy time, when I can slow down and enjoy my kids.

As I raked leaves today, with no coat on and the sun shining down, I relented and decided that I don't really dislike fall. It is just the looming weeks of sunless winter that autumn foretells, that I don't like. It seems so ominous. As the days grow darker and colder, I know the bleakness is coming again. I know that I will enjoy merry December, even if we never see the sun. I know that January will be fun because we'll play in the snow and see some sun. But by mid-March, I will be weary of my winter coat and of the alternating dirty snow and bare mud.

And so if I must be pushed on the matter, I really don't dislike winter either. I will never love winter, the way Jeremy does. But I appreciate the brisk feeling of frozen air, and the comfort of a warm house when it is cold outside, and skiing and skating, and the beautiful clear winter days when the sun is actually shining and snow is new, or the days when the air is thick yet silent with fluffy, new-falling snow.


So if you ask me, I will say that I don't like winter. But I don't mean that. I do love living in Michigan, with the full seasonal display and variety. I have been to Memphis in December: It was warm during the days, and the sun shone (weakly), but I wouldn't really prefer the dull brown landscape to the snow-covered vistas of Michigan. And now I have been to Orlando and St. Augustine in March. Nice, but kind of thin. And so that hardly makes a good trade for year-round cockroaches and mold. And I have been to Miami in November, and...well, okay, that was pretty nice, actually. I wore a sundress and sunglasses. I jet-skied in the ocean. I could adjust to that, if pushed. And I have been to Southern California in several seasons, and ... well, okay, who wouldn't like that weather? Especially sun-starved, vitamin-D lacking, Michiganders in mid-March? BUT, it is southern California. I am sure I wouldn't really want to live there. There are lots of reasons why, and I can tell them all to you, on a day when I have had enough sunshine.