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| My view from work on a late January day |
Groundhog Day. I realize it's silly and that the groundhog's predictions have only been about 39% accurate throughout the last 125 years, but the always-cold part of me still anxiously awaits Phil's prediction, and hopes that he tells us winter is over. In the history of Groundhog Day, that prediction has only been made 17 times and this year was no exception. Six more weeks of winter for us.
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| Fort St John winter |
Then I remembered how lucky I am to live in Vancouver. For those of you reading my blog for the first time, or who just didn't know, I'm originally from Northern BC. In my hometown, we would get six months of solid winter. And when I say winter, I mean snow-up-to-your-knees, ugly snowsuits, warm-up-your-truck-15-minutes-prior-to-leaving-or-else-the-door-will-be-frozen-shut, -40°C kind of winter. Our summer was nice. Similar temperature-wise to Vancouver, but our fall/spring was almost non-existent. Fall was this season that started at the tail end of August with the first frost that kills everything living, turns the leaves brown, seemingly overnight, and fall to the ground in a matter of days - much faster than anyone could rake them up. Then we would get a dump of snow usually mid-September and it would be cold until middle of April-ish. Temperatures would rise to slightly above freezing. Just enough for the snow to turn to black slush everywhere and for the dog poop that had been frozen and hiding in the snow all winter to thaw out and stink up the town. The yucky, slushy stage lasts about 6 weeks before the last of the snow finally dries out, exposing all the brown leaves that we were too lazy to rake up half a year ago, and allowing the dead, brown grass to begin to revive itself in time for two green, much-too-short summer months.
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| Vancouver winter |
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| Fort St John winter |
Girls go ape-shit over fall here. We put away our stupid high-waisted, ass-bearing shorts and gladiator sandals and trade them in for tights and ankle booties because we aren't ready to fully let go of the fact that our asses, tits, and legs (aka the things that we think guys like) will be hibernating under baggy clothes all winter. We don't want to be cold though, so we put on "layers" of long shirts and sweaters and an obnoxiously big scarf to overcompensate for the fact that we're not wearing pants on our lower half. We run to Bath & Body Works to be the first among our social circles to burn the 3-Wick Apple Flowers candle that would apparently be inappropriate to burn at any other time of year and then go grab a mediocre latte from Starbucks that we would normally freak out over the amount of calories/sugar/dairy we're consuming that no longer apply because it's PUMPKIN SPICE. We crammed so many holidays and events between the months of October and January to distract us from the cold, winter months. We start with going back to school, which affects us even if we don't go ourselves, then Thanksgiving, Halloween, thinking about Christmas, getting excited for Christmas (and new seasonal Starbucks drinks), preparing for Christmas, almost getting sick of Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Years, and then trying to stay true to our New Years resolutions, which we give up on right around the time we can start anticipating Valentine's Day and starting to notice that the weather has been kinda shitty for the last few weeks. Then we get ONE day resembling spring and we go all season-crazy again. We start purging and cleaning our houses, watching HGTV for DIY ideas, and pulling out our cute dresses and skirts, realize they no longer fit, so we take up running again and give up eating gluten (or whatever it is that makes us fat this year).
I'm a summer person. I realize that it's not exactly an original thing to say. According to gallup.com, 37% of people prefer spring, 27% prefer fall (probably mostly female), 25% summer, and 11% winter (probably mostly male with a few female snowboard enthusiasts). To me, spring was always just the overture before the real symphony of excitement. Summer is really the only season you will catch me outside being "active" and its the only season where I can wear jeans and a tank top and not be cold. I'm sad that I lose my excuse to stay inside curled up with a good book, but then I remember that avocados, berries, and tomatoes are in season and all is forgiven.
This spring in particular, however, does excite me. There are a lot of new, exciting changes happening in my life right now. Some are sad, but forever an optimist, I'm trying to view even the negative as a window of opportunity that I could use for the better. Spring represents new life and that's exactly how I'm feeling right now - that I am getting a new life. I made a commitment for 2015 to write more regularly so welcome to Emily Finds Bliss, a blog about a young woman's journey to find sincere joy in her life. As spring turns into summer, the pastels will brighten, the food will ripen, and the exciting electricity of the season will explode into a beautiful, hustle-bustle of energy, I too plan to brighten, ripen, and explode in my love for Christ Jesus. I have found a new identity and hope to use this blog to document that. Not everything on this blog is religion-centred - I promise to write about all things that I love and want to share. For now, I will leave you with this quote that I love from Albert Camus that I feel describes my life quite accurately from the course of the last few months:
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus ~
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