It’s easy for me to get down in the dumps when we go off Daylight Saving Time. Something about a 4:30 p.m. sunset, even when days are sunny and temperatures mild, has always made me a little melancholy. It’s hard to feel happy about trading zinnias and swimming and butterflies and baseball and flip-flops and hummingbirds and picnics and bike rides and all the other wonderful things that spring and summer bring for what I know lies ahead.
Trying to look on the bright side, I settled down at my computer last Sunday–the first day we returned to Central Standard Time—and made a list of all the good things the cold, dark months bring. An early “thankful list,” if you will. Here’s what I came up with:
- Potted pansies on my porch
- Autumn leaves, even more gorgeous than usual this year
- College football and college basketball, sometimes on the same day
- Fuzzy sweaters, yoga pants and flannel pajamas
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, my birthday, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day
- Campfires, bonfires, fires in the fireplace
- Fewer flies, wasps, mosquitoes and ticks
- Crock-pot dinners
- No weeds to pull
- Extra time to read
- No need for a pedicure
- Drinking coffee in the middle of the day
- Sunrise before the alarm clock rings
- Birds at the feeder all day long
- Stunning night skies
- Jeans and cowboy boots
- Pulling up the comforter in the middle of the night
- Holly berries
- Not getting sweaty when I walk around the block
- Snow skiing (I hope)
There you have it. Twenty reasons to celebrate fall and winter. I think I’ll cut out this list and tape it to the bathroom mirror. Just to try to keep myself from counting down the days until March 11, when we spring forward once again.
(November 12, 2017)