Sometimes I think we say it every season; “Isn’t it colder/hotter, longer/shorter, wetter/dryer than usual this year?” I live in what would be called the Deep South but that hasn’t kept me from freezing this winter. It seems that it was not that long ago that we were asking if summer would ever end and now almost daily I hear someone say, “I think I feel a bit of Spring in the air!” But that is really just wishful thinking here in the beginning of February. My fingers and toes just stay cold pretty much all of the time. I remember once as a kid sitting in a freezing stadium watching some sort of event. The lady sitting next to me had just returned with a hot cup of coffee and said, “I don’t know whether to drink it, pour it down my shirt or stick my big toe in it!”

So what’s the answer? Cuddle up on the couch with a cup of hot tea and dream of summer? While that may sound appealing, an alternative would be to embrace each season and all it has to offer. There is something in us that always wants to look for what we don’t have or what’s coming next. But I think we miss opportunities when we focus on the next big thing or the season that isn’t here yet.  This year my hope is that I will be content in whatever circumstances and whatever weather I may find myself in. I don’t want to just survive the winter; I want to make the most of it. A very wise and funny friend posted this as her status recently: “When life gives you dilemmas make dilemmonade.”