You can do anything...if you wake up in Greece...

You can do anything if you wake up in Greece....

... the lyric sung over me as I left my car to enter my office building this morning. Greece indeed.

We are in Narnia where it is always winter and never Christmas. Of course, Christmas can get on my nerve too.

So... I once again have to say that I loath winter. All my energy, emotion, joy, desire to live dissipates and turns into a few flakes of skin on the floor. Truly, if the most beautiful snowfall ever to occur in the history of the world happened, and I missed it, I would not care.

That said, and said loudly, driving to work was like traveling through a strange land. I remember the first time I saw the moon in the sky of the southern hemisphere. The sky was what it always is, and yet not what it is. A while of thinking and I realized everything was upside down. I sat and stared.

So this morning. Familiar old trees whose branches go UP now drooped down. Rows of cedars bowed along the side of the road as I passed, as if I was a dignitary worthy of worship. Evergreens had arms outstretched, fat bowing bodies and hooded heads drooped over, like some weird creatures from a fantastical shire. Familiar landmarks gone, or piled in a different place. The same and not the same.

When the land we always walk through shifts it wakes us up. That is good. Even if we are in a winter stupor. And I have to say too, there was some beauty. Nature is beautiful even when it is cruel.

So. It is winter. Winter is the season that ages me. Winter is the season that makes me despair. It is the season responsible for at least 8 pounds of unsightly fat snuggling into my pants. I have not yet experienced 12 months without a walk through this trial. I've done my turn.

I've been a good girl. Can I go to Greece now?