12 Things I Miss About Winter in the Midwest

1.  On a clear day, sunlight in frigid air has a unique quality and brightness.

2.  Walking across the surface of a frozen lake.

3.  Having an excellent, easily accepted reason to stay at home reading or watching movies.

4.  The depth of the early morning silence.

5.  The heat, taste, and aroma of smoking a pipe in the frosty air.

6.  People who actually understand how to drive in weather that is not perfect.

7.  Watching snow fall.

8.  You have a much closer connection to the earth when all of your plans are disrupted in a display of nature’s strength.

9.  Even though it is much colder, people do not complain as much about how cold it is.

10.  The way the world looks and smells fresh and clean under a layer of pristine, newly-fallen snow.

11.  Winter builds character.  “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character . . .”

12.  When it is that cold, you know you are alive; if you were dead, you would feel a lot better!

[ Winter image by David Blackwell ]