Cold...and New Thoughts!

I am posting a picture of our first snow here in Maryland!

I grew up in sunny California, used to 70 degree Christmas mornings, rarely wearing boots or heavy coats.  I loved the beach, flip flops, sand, long summer evenings, bar-be-qued ribs on Dad's grill, eating outside on our patio often, and riding with the windows always down, and sunshine....oh the life giving sunshine!

I think of myself as a California girl still....if only in my heart.  I married the man of  my dreams, a man who is a Baltimore man!  He grew up here, went to school here, knows all the streets and how to get somewhere using all the short cuts!  He loves the Orioles, Ravens and Maryland Terps, his alma mater.  I love them now too, because I love him.

A California girl marries an East Coast guy!  Interesting life together for sure!  I have come to love many things about Maryland. Green, green and more green! Trees, lakes, streams, deer everywhere you look. Blue skies that knock your shoes off.   And then there is snow, come winter.  It's pretty and white and very cold.  I like it when it first snows. Everything looks clean and white. I sit and watch and drink my hot tea or coffee. Nice! The next day I look and the snow is not gone!

This is the part I am learning to not complain about. It stays, and stays. It gets heavy to move, it gets dirty. It melts and re-freezes.  It makes you slip. It is hard to walk on. It is in the way when you want to park. It clogs up things. It makes traffic a pain. It's hard to stop at stoplights.Driving in it can be scary. People do it all the time. Many love it. Many wouldn't live anywhere else.

So I am learning to 'like' it too.  I am not quite 'loving' it yet, but there is hope.  I have come to realize if I constantly say "I hate winter" I will never love it.  Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So.......yes, I love summer! Yes, I love sunshine.  Yet, I am learning to find 'fun' things about winter.  Warm mittens.  Hot Chocolate. Hot Latte's. Seeing my kids laugh as they fly down the sled hill.  A good book under a warm blanket as the snow flies....all true blessings!

So, I am committing to NOT say "I hate winter" anymore.  Let's hope as my words, thoughts and focus change, my heart will too!  Thank you Lord for winter and snow.

Gotta go check and see if the tea pot is whistling.....
     Thinking new thoughts, Lynette