Blessed to be Cold

So, it's been -30C here this weekend (-22F), and I'm just so glad that I haven't had to go out very much (SO glad my Christmas shopping is taken care of!). Bitter cold is just that. Take a deep breath through your nose and your nose hairs almost stick together. Take a deep breath through your mouth, and you stop short for the shock of the breath against the back of your throat. It's that cold.

I was out babysitting this evening, and the kids wanted to skate on the little rink in their back yard. Wool socks: check. Down vest: check. Scarf, hat, mitts: check. It was good! We were outside for a good hour, even at -30C! ...It was a might colder (mite colder?) driving home. You know it's cold when the frost is on the inside of your car windows, and when you sit down to start your car, there's no give in your cushion. It's not entirely foreign to me. We have a cold spell like this once or twice each winter. I expect another one at the end of January. Still, the first cold snap always makes me stop and go, "oh... yeah."

So now I'm home. I came home, poured myself a nice creamy liquer beverage with milk, ran and enjoyed a hot bath with relaxing epsom salts, and am now stretched out on the couch with my laptop and a small electric pad on 'Low' keeping my back cozy warm while I type and watch TV. I have a cat sleeping on each couch, and my tree's lights are aglow. Mmm. Cozy.

I am so blessed. There are so many people who certainly aren't enjoying the luxuries I've enjoyed just in this evening. Some don't even have a home to go to on a night like this. I can't complain. I just can't. And yet, I know I have days where I do. Days where internally, I balk at having to even go out in the cold (I'm blessed to have work to go to), having to remember to plug in the car (I'm blessed to even have a car), having to come home to my tiny little 1-bdrm that hardly has enough space to store my snowpants (really, my place holds everything I own, and I am SO blessed to have a place that I can call my own--REALLY call my own, cuz I don't rent).

So whatever 'cold' looks like where you are, the next time it gets really cold, cozy up at home, and remember how blessed you really are.