January is being particularly January-ish this year. Cold, gray, snowy, icy, rainy, dreary,… long. Sometimes when the weeks stretch on without much sunlight or warmth, it’s hard to imagine spring or summer will ever return. If I’m not intentional about my reining in my thoughts, I can easily slip into despair over the whole situation.
One practice I’ve found helpful in the winter (and really, year-round) is to name things that are little sources of delight out loud. I suppose it’s sort of an exercise in gratitude—an acknowledgement of the good gifts, no matter how small, that are making life better right now.
There are a few things, three in particular, that I delight in more than ever in this season.
- Coffee in a mug. Drinking my morning cup of coffee out of a real mug has taken on new significance this winter. I don’t know if there’s consensus on this belief or not, but I’m convinced coffee tastes better in a normal mug than in a thermal tumbler. Ever since I started working in an office setting six weeks ago and began rushing out the door on weekday mornings, I delight in my Saturday and Sunday morning coffee rituals in a new way. I look forward to waking up to enjoy it, seeing the steam come off of it, and savoring each sip. I love coffee in a mug.
- Hot showers. When we lived in Alabama two years ago, the older home we purchased came with lots of charm and a faulty hot water heater. We never knew when it might happen, but without warning a shower would go from hot to cold in a matter of seconds. And with three daughters in the house, there was never enough hot water for back-to-back showers.
The water heater could be reset and our issues temporarily resolved with a scary trip to the crawl space and some fidgeting with the pilot light. This was a minor problem when Kendrick was home to deal with it, but it became a very major problem when he took a job out of town and I had to deal with it during the week. Cue tears, fears, and bad words. Ever since that winter and my crawl space adventures, I have a new and deeper appreciation for hot water that just works. The house we purchased this past summer has a newer unit, and there isn’t a day that goes by when I’m not thankful for it. I delight in hot showers.
- Our dog. I don’t spend as much time with our 9-year-old goldendoodle, Rosie, as I did prior to taking this new job. She knows it, too, and she surely misses the cheese and the extra attention she was used to getting from me throughout the day. (Maybe mainly just the cheese). When I come home now, her tail starts wagging the moment I open the door, and she can hardly wait to bring me whatever toy or towel she can stuff in her mouth the fastest.
Rosie’s shenanigans used to drive me nearly crazy. I thought our time together was coming to an abrupt end when she killed a baby chipmunk during one of my Zoom calls last spring. But these days I appreciate her enthusiasm for my homecoming each evening in a new way. I delight in the predictable silliness of my favorite animal.
I don’t hate winter, but it has a darkness and a dormancy to it that make it harder for me to savor it. Naming a few of its delights makes it easier to remember that this—even if it’s a gray, cold mid-winter day—is a day the Lord has made. The choice to wish it away or celebrate a few of its little joys is mine.
“Delight is incomplete until is is expressed.”
C.S. Lewis
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