by Cheryl A. Daters
Winters can seem endless when you live in the Northeast. Several months of grey and dreary days can take a toll on one’s attitude, especially after having just been through a string of holidays and celebrations.
Beginning in October, with its bounty of autumnal colors, one can enjoy a complete overload of the senses if they wish. There are farm festivals of all kinds with apple picking, pumpkin picking, U-pick, I-pick, We Can All Pick almost anything at this time of year.
Now that we’re in high gear, we roll over into November with some of those fall colors still hanging in as we anticipate Thanksgiving. Our senses are teased with spice-blended this and that, from Frappuccinos and Cheerios to our daily coffee and yogurt. It seems there is nothing that can’t be covered with a combination of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Three weeks into this month, our senses of taste and smell have become so desensitized we can no longer enjoy our after-Thanksgiving-dinner dessert of pumpkin pie…. our tastebuds are dead.
Luckily, we have one more week to recuperate. The leaves have become a carpet of color on the ground and all the trees look oddly naked. And, just like the trees, we also feel a bit naked as we can now see our neighbors’ homes and feel a bit exposed.
December comes crashing in with a whole new variety of colors, smells and tastes. Just as we got used to the yellows, oranges and browns, our world is turned upside down with a barrage of red and green, gold and silver. Children are warned they must be on good behavior and adults generally seem to improve theirs as well. We are now careening at warp speed towards “the big day” of celebration for many.
We barely manage to get through “the holiday season” to ring in the New Year and there is a communal THUD as we all fall into a heap of exhaustion. And, now, it’s the long wait. January can seem even more cold and grey after what we’ve been through in the months prior. There is no big holiday. There is no changing of the color guard. People escape this boring month by going on vacations to warmer climates or embrace it fully and go on a skiing holiday.
Personally, my favorite pastime in January is to complain about how boring it is, how long it feels and bake bread. Baking bread always makes things seem better somehow. I’ll bake English Muffin loaves, putting six in the freezer and giving other loaves to friends and family before they leave on their holidays.
February comes along just as we feel we can’t deal with winter much longer and we start to see the light with small celebrations. But, don’t get me started with that groundhog thing… does anyone REALLY put much faith in it? I have had a groundhog living under the shed in my back yard for years and I can honestly tell you, don’t bet on them. At this point, however, we do start to believe spring will return. Love is in the air with Valentine’s Day and it brings a renewed sense of good things and it comes in the middle of the shortest month. How nice.
It seems we’ve been through the coldest months and know we can hang in there a little longer. You never know what winter brings here; it could be cold and snowy or fairly mild, with the snow shovel still standing in its place for the entire time.
And, then one day, you walk outside and there is a small flower bud peeking up through the snow or frosty ground. It’s tiny but it’s the leader, the first of more to come. One by one as days pass, we see color bursting forward from the grey days of winter. Forsythia, daffodil and the like seem to shout “We’re still here, we were just resting!” And, so, the world goes round and round, the seasons come and go and we can rest assured that Mother Nature shows her strength in some very subtle ways or some massive turn of events. We have no control over those things but we can still be impressed if we take the time to notice. I love seeing that little purple crocus in the front yard next to the walkway after a long winter. I believe it returns every year to give me hope, which is what spring is all about.
Cheryl Daters is a lifetime resident of the East End. Only recently taking up writing, she has long felt the desire to put some of her personal stories and unique views on paper. Ms. Daters has always found ways to express her creativity through a variety of mediums over the years. In addition to currently writing, she enjoys painting, baking, crafting and her rescue dog, Max.
From the Writing Workshop is a collaboration between the East End Beacon and writing workshops at East End Arts in Riverhead, focusing on nonfiction forms such as narrative, memoir, personal essays, and short form writing. More details are at eastendarts.org.
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