Time to prepare
Posted By
Posted 2 months ago
Just in case there was any question it is now final.
Winter is here.
According to calendars the winter season doesn't technically start until December 21 but we all know that is merely a date. March 21 is the first day of spring making winter, and every season, three months long.
This is true on paper at least.
The weather dictates the season, not our calendar. Sometimes winter starts early and sometimes it lasts a lot longer than three months.
As such we need to make some preparations now instead of in December when we may already be covered in a thick layer of frozen dust.
Most years in Canada when winter comes there is a sense of anticipation and longing, an almost familiar comfort with the shorter days. We go so far as to look upon winter's cold as a sensible reprieve to the hot days of summer and early autumn. This year may be very different.
Our seasons are so varied that we boast nearly every type of climate, depending on the region and time of year. The cycle of seasons recharges our internal batteries on a yearly basis and allows us to move seamlessly from month to month.
Our cycle is somewhat off this year.
The summer we had was overcast and bereft of any real sense of renewal. Recent history has seen more sunny days strung together than the best run that came in summer.
How hard will it be to get through this winter with a less than full battery?
There are some avenues to avoid the physical pitfalls of a poor summer such as cod liver oil and fruit which substitutes for some of the vitamins normally derived from the sun. That hardly addresses the mental aspects of a hard and frigid winter.
Statistics show that depression is higher in the northern parts of the world where the sun shines less. Will we see a similar increase across the board after such a dismal sun season?
Animals prepare themselves for winter by foraging, collecting, feeding and saving. As humans our preparation is more complex. We need mental stimuli during the dark months to compensate for the free and automatic comfort of the warm and sunny outdoors. There may be need for more than normal come February 2010.
It's time to start collecting and saving our mental stimuli.
Plan that trip now, set aside that hot chocolate tomorrow and help your neighbour shovel his or her snow when you see them struggling later this winter. Some things can substitute for the mental gains that come from sunshine, but we may have to supply them ourselves.
