How I Fight Off The Winter Blues

Today it's nippy outside. The high temperature reached around 60 degrees and a nagging drizzle fell all afternoon. Overnight, we'll experience 44 degrees. The sun is setting earlier each day. The Autumnal Equinox is only nine days away. I can already feel my energy changing. I am less energetic. I am craving heavy comfort foods like soup and mashed potatoes.

Winter in Chicago is in a word, brutal. Freezing temps, snowy mess, and frigid winds off Lake Michigan make outdoor life a kind of hell. Most people do lots of complaining about the winter weather, me included. Don't judge--we have to complain or we might go stir crazy. 

In my family we gauge the seasons by jigsaw puzzles. I could come home from school on any given winter day and find our dining room table covered in a work in progress. Around the unfinished puzzle border there would be stacks of shallow boxes full of tiny pieces grouped by color and visual texture. It's just something we do to pass the time when it's too cold to enjoy the outdoors.

As I grew up I discovered my own way of fighting off cabin fever. I paint. I'm self-taught but I do love it. Colorful smears of acrylic paint cover almost all of my winter pajamas and sweatshirts. I recently rearranged my office/creative space to maximize room for the upcoming painting season.  Below is a creation of mine from last winter that now hangs in my living room. I call it "Reach Beyond Grasp."

Seeing as I'm in the process of finishing a NaNo novel, I don't know how much painting I will be doing this year. It will take work to find the proper balance between writing and painting. November is entirely scheduled to my novel for NaNoWriMo. After that, I'll allow myself plenty of time to indulge in my favorite cure for the winter blues--a brush, a palate and a canvas.

Enjoying The Season

I notice I haven’t posted in quite a few weeks. There’s a simple reason for that. I’ve been enjoying the season!  Summers in Chicago are far too short and too easily allowed to slip by. I’ve spent a lot of time relaxing with books and movies, listening to bird song outside my window, watching the neighborhood ignite into a fervor of human activity and feeling the moist caress of Summer’s kiss on my skin.

I hate Winter. I know what you’re thinking: “You live in Chicago! Winter should be in your blood.” And perhaps it is. Furthermore, that is most likely the reason for my despise.  Winter is dark, sullen, heavy, depressing, and above all COLD. Not at all good for the spirit. Perhaps one day I’ll move to a warmer climate where I can enjoy temperance on a regular basis. Preferably, somewhere that nature lives in better harmony with civilization. But for now I’m going to focus on making the most of what little bright, tangy, uplifting Summer that I can. 

We’ve come upon on the threshold of August and I can already feel Earth’s orbit once again transporting me toward that desolate of seasons.The days have noticeably shortened. Summer’s swan song string of 90-degree temperatures has arrived, heralding the coming Autumn.

And with the coming of Autumn so close at hand, I am grateful for one very important thing: the emergence of a potentially fruitful collaboration with two wonderfully positive and talented ladies with equal desire to carve a niche in the world of fiction. That’s right, a writer’s group. It has all the makings of success and through the end of glorious Summer and the calming luxury of colorful Autumn we’re sure to come upon a rhythm that aids us all in beating back the breath of big, bad Winter. We have goals (my personal goal being to complete a first draft before the new year), we have enthusiasm, and most important of all we have moxie!