Kids Play.

The best way to find joy in something as an adult is to adopt a kid-like behavior. A true statement in my experience, since I already have a much lighter approach to life, one that could be defined as ‘kid-like’. It’s like fussing about something you can’t change, rather than accepting it for what it is. The human is never satisfied. When it rains we cry, when it doesn’t rain we cry, when it’s too hot we cry and when it’s too cold we definitely cry. Speaking of cold, I’ve lived all of my adult life in cities which have cold winters (except that time I lived in Miami). Ever since I can remember, winter was never my favorite season mainly because it’s cold and dead. The number of times I got snow in my boots or cold hands from running up and down as we played ‘king of the hill’, or inventing some fun sliding games. It didn’t matter, I would do it again the next day. We anticipated winter storms, ’cause it meant schools might close. Building forts and castles, analyzing the best snow for snowballs, snowmen, snow-anything. The sound of the boots dragging and the swish of the snow pants are memories engrained and reminiscent of a time of carefree youthful pleasures. These were the days of enjoying winter. I believe in order to enjoy something, you must find something enjoyable about it.

Today, I went ice skating. It was a perfect day to stay indoors with chilling winds bringing it at a low of -27 C. So, what am I doing exactly? Slipping some old skates that barely fit, without the proper socks to stay warm, to go skate on some frozen water? That sounds about right, with the exception that I was in great company, and enjoyed the -27 C in a way that is memorable. I don’t like cold weather, but I’ve had to live with it almost all of my life. Adapting, tolerating, enduring were, and still are, accurate for me when it comes to winter weather behavior. Accepting is the key though. Once I have accepted that there are four seasons in this part of the world, that winter is necessary for the cycle of life, that cold doesn’t exist, it’s an absence of heat, then everything feels better already. With that in mind, I’ve decided to make more efforts to indulge in some winter activities, the same way I do for the other solstice. That way, I am guaranteed a much better winter experience overall. Winter blues? I don’t know what that is. I’m sticking to kids’ play.