Winter Origins

It’s almost 0° in Odessa today. Some snowflakes fell from the sky this afternoon. I know because I was walking around town to digest my meal of varenyky. It was already dark by 16:00 and I had to rely on the street’s fairy lights to come back home. Oh, how I missed winter. There is comfort to be found in drinking a cup of coffee by a cold night’s candlelight. There isn’t much to do except getting lost in thought and making sure everyone is warm. This is the perfect time to write and read. Winter is associated with hibernation, and thus death, but I see it more like a return to our origins before spring rebirth. It’s not about inactivity, it’s about focusing on ourselves and getting back to our priorities. The underdog’s season. Winter is the closest we have to an experience of death. Overcoming winter is overcoming material scarcity and solitude, humankind’s biggest threats. It’s a trial to remind us why we live. Living in an eternal summer can make us lazy and sufficient, we should be thankful for the gift of winter. Winter is coming and it’s a good thing.