So the saying goes, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Though in this case, ’em would actually be an it I suppose.
Winter hasn’t been my friend for a long time. Having spent this past weekend with a toddler and a preschooler I was actually surprised to discover, however, it’s not always their friend either. After bundling up for some outdoor fun on Sunday, it wasn’t long before the biting wind and blowing snow had chased away any pleasure that might be found in building forts or snowmen.
Usually, winter is a natural miracle for these little ones. Only magic, after all, could cover the landscape so quickly, transforming it from the norm to something pristine, pure and so very fluffy.
There are many adults, too, who enjoy the chilly months, seeing the blanket of white not as an inconvenience that must be shovelled, but rather as the perfect set up for fun. The first fleck of snow gets their pulse racing. Traversing fields on snowmobiles, gliding over ice on skates, crossing country on skis, flying downhill on snowboards are eagerly anticipated.
If I get a little nostalgic I can recall the fun to be found in winter, too. Skating and tobogganing were frequent pastimes in my youth. I later fell in love with an avid snowmobiler and only stopped going along for the ride after babies began arriving.
However, as I look forward to weeks yet of cleaning off the car and clearing out the driveway, of bundling up then trudging along icy sidewalks, of shivering and shaking even indoors, I am disinclined to ‘join ’em’ in their zealousness for winter. I can try to alter my completely negative perceptions though with these entertaining collections of winter sport clipart:
