This isn't ski country.
No mountains. No chair lifts.
No powder freaks.
This isn't beach country either.
So, don't even think about warm sand
or surfers
or kids picking up sea shells.
That would be a mistake.
Instead, keep your eyes sharp, focused on finding sparklers.
Signs of life, however minute.
Focus on those.
Because, folks, this is the Mid West.
And, what you're gonna need about now
is a LOT of heart.
HEART will shove you into your coat and boots and lead you out to find that little thaw.
And, when you do, small as it may be,
a numbness that threatened to take hold of you
will kind of let go.
And something full-spectrum will ease your mood.
Heart will convince you not to worry
about your stiffening cold fingers
as you wait for the moon
to snag in the boughs
and rest there for a minute.
Heart will encourage you to marvel, if a bit reluctantly, at the smallest of creatures,
like this little one,
surviving his first winter, adorned by his first snow.
It's always the FIRST time for someone, somewhere.
And, heart makes you care about that, wish him well.
As the light shifts,
your newly acclimated eyes
will pick up all the GOLD
randomly scattered by an ordinary sunset.
That's when you'll KNOW you've made it.
You're not just living.
You're breathing it in.
You're fully equipped
to be here
NOW.
The plain-ness of things
doesn't threaten you
any more.
The jitters are gone.
It's just space.
And HEART fills it up with life.
That, my friend,
is what we're gonna do.
This is my 54th time.
So, I feel fairly comfortable saying
it's not a bad way to go.
