377 days, Blog 159 The Winter of My Content

I don’t dislike this winter.  Maybe it is my perpetual resistance to going with the crowd.  Or maybe it is just a good set of circumstances and perspective.  Whatever it is, I am really okay with this part of 2015 and here are a few reasons why.

1. I am directing a show called Almost, Maine.  That in and of itself could be cause for pulling one’s hair out and stressing about stupid details.  That could still happen in a couple weeks after tech.  But… whatever.  I was supposed to stage manage the production, but a couple days before the first rehearsal there was a last minute change.  Nothing bad.  No ill wills.  Just a change that required me stepping in.  So that’s where I’ve been living in my head in odd moments.  (Maybe a little bit of why I haven’t been keeping up with this blog.)  It is a play of nine stories set on a wintry night… when love happens.  Some of it is happy.  Some of it is heartbreaking.  Almost.  Quirky.  Magic.  Almost.  But as I try to imagine music and tone and setting the stage, it does force me to look at the beauty of winter.  Winter in a rural town where anything can happen on a Friday night.

So it busies my mind.  It also prevents me from hibernating.  At least three times a week (sometimes more) I am getting out of the house and heading to the (freezing cold) theater.  Just the act of not sitting at home, not staring at a computer, not isolating myself lends itself to enjoying winter more.  Moreover, I am with creative people.  My people.  That is a kind of warmth on which I could write a whole blog, but I won’t.  Just that it’s good.

2. I am not living in or commuting to Boston this year.  So maybe there is more snow, but it still feels okay when I have the acres in Oakham where I can put it i.e. not trying to put a foot of snow every week onto one little bit of yard or having to back out onto Auburn Street while we all switch cars around.  Any winter is better when that is the case.  Nor do I have to agonize over finding a parking space in JP every morning.  I can park my car in a garage at night.  I have an off street parking space at my job.  It's all relative. 

3. I am a weirdo who likes to shovel.  I really do.  It’s part obsession.  But it’s as much about the exercise thing as it is the need to have a clear driveway thing.  The thing is I actually like exercise when I do it.  But like a lot of people, I manage to talk myself out of it.  A lot.  The thing about shoveling is that I can’t talk myself out of it if I want to leave my house (and get to rehearsal or work).  Like yesterday.  I knew how cold it was going to be out there.  I didn’t want to go outside.  But I did.  And it was cold.  I was only out for 15 or 20 minutes and was ready to go in.  I told myself if I got to a certain point I could.  But then I warmed up and hit my stride.  I got almost 2/3 of the driveway done on the first shift.  (And I have a pretty long driveway, by the way.)  

4. The gift of time.  I enjoy the days not spent in an office.  Even if I am working at home, I like the ability to get up and go into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee.  To move that computer in front of the wood stove.  To go out and shovel for a bit.  To make my own day.  With windows and comfy clothes.  I think there is something to that.  Something of which I have to remind myself when I contemplate a better discipline and determination towards writing.

5. I will take this over a heat wave any day.  I can still think in the cold.  When it is hot and humid, my brain melts.  Also, I will take this over tornadoes and hurricanes and other destructive forces of nature.

6. Speaking of nature, it really is quite spectacular.  It is so pristine and pretty.  Not gray and brown and dead.  It is also water for the green and pink and yellow and purple that will come soon after.  

7. It will melt.  Time passes quickly.  I will be back wrestling those wretched wild roses again soon enough.  With bugs and sunburns and all the delightful trappings of those summer months.

Mostly though, there are a lot of things on which I could spend my negativity.  I know all too well a little negativity plants a seed for much more.  When I contemplate these seven things and some others not mentioned here, I realize it isn't worth getting upset about it.  Life is good.