Now is the Winter...

...of our discontent.

Well, my discontent anyway. Let's face it--I hate winter. Always have and suppose I always will. Why? First, I hate being cold. Second, I hate being wet. So put the two things together and what do you have? Winter and a double dose of hating it.

But at least there's one bit of good news I always hold on to at this time of year. At this point, the days are starting to get longer. Sure, not by much right now. But tomorrow will be 20 seconds longer than today and Wednesday will be 23 seconds longer than tomorrow and so forth and so on. No wonder our ancient ancestors used to have a big ol' party on December 25th.

Oh come on, you didn't really think Jesus was born on that date now did you? Naw, it was the day the astronomers were able to confirm the sun had stopped moving southward and had begun its return to the north. And yes, I do know that's not how it actually words. But that's how it looked to them.

It was the promise that Spring would return and the process of planting, growing, and harvesting would all begin again. No wonder they celebrated! So now that we've had our play pretend Jesus' birthday gig, I'm going to hold my own little celebration of gratitude for 20 more seconds tomorrow than today. And as I do, I'll keep in mind those immortal words of Don Henley --"There's just so many Summers, baby; just so many Springs" (Last Worthless Evening). Because who knows? Maybe the Mayans really did have it right and on 12/21/12, that old sun might just decide to keep heading south and not come back!