Fine Bearded Winter
Ave!
As the Southern Hemisphere braces itself for the abrupt seasonal changes of recrudescent southerly wind, zealous rainfall and dramatic overuse of personal heating typified by the mid-year, many of us are helplessly low on motivation to continue our productive habits and have begun to launch into hibernation. Self-promises for ‘regular exercise’, ‘healthier eating’ and ‘early to bed, early to rise’ seem to be unattainable ideals with which to compare ourselves, constantly lingering in our minds, drilled by phamarceutical companies in mass-media in the bid to earn a warm coin from our frozen pocket. It is perfectly justifiable however, to spend an extra hour asleep in the morning or many hours before a computer screen typing the final words of a report due the next day. Hark, for there is solace to be had despite our waining physiological care; poets of a century past were certain that words which flowed from the heart to the end of one’s quill was as warming as their feet beside an open fire. Perhaps it is possible after all to warm our brave legion of fingers and toes within their gloves and socks respectively, with a liberal application of cosy thinking.
In a rather sad state of affairs I am presented with one of the coldest months of the year in which to study and sit for my examinations, celebrate my birthday and find sanity amidst the bedsheets I am bound to, in fear of the stifling cold of the outside world. The line of freight trains roughly 15 metres from my bedroom window are much more prevalent as they transport tonnes of coal from place to place, and it is difficult not to percieve the world from such a limited scope as dark, mundane and utterly frigid. While health professionals endlessly stress the importance of physical exercise to better health during the winter months, it is equally important to exercise the mind and feed the soul with liberal doses of the sight of Japanese maple trees, the quaint sound of falling rain and a mind-game here and there to assert yourself as merely human. After all, what good is it to carry a heavy coat of negative baggage with you every day?
I’ve become rather accustomed to doing crosswords on trains to and from the city while tapping away to Sonny Rollins or Django Reinhardt and casually glancing over at the faded sandstone buildings that make the city. After all, it’s so easy to become one of them - that is, identifying the others on the train as a sort of monogamous race of mundane peoples whose lives are uneventful and drear. It’s easy to feel oneself cascading into the drains of some unknown sewer grate on a rat race to the mouldiest cheese. The best of news is that we are completely in charge of our perceptive processes - that is, we are free to react and to feel and experience how we choose and a negative reaction to the season is something we can blame only on ourselves. Winter dormancy is so common for many of us because we don’t care enough about it - we dismiss the season with its veil of empty promises - and allow ourselves to become cold and our minds to develop cobwebs.
We eat and we drink and rest and play, and the body is in its state of homeostasis. By this token it is just as important to be taking care of ourselves spiritually. Winter is a time we typically spend more time at home in the warmth of familiar surroundings, so why not take advantage of this? While sleeping in is tempting, why not wake up one extra hour to see the iridescent blue hue that captures the outdoor scene? Rather than dwelling on the negative that encapsulates the homeless on the bus home, why not imagine a pigeon roost in a romantic cathedral setting? It is vaguely reminiscent of daydreaming but cognitive efficiency is the hallmark of a finely bearded winter - finely bearded meaning to say that if we are open to the blessings of winter which promises to give us extra amounts of time for creative and cathartic things, then we will feel that poetic warmth described by the artistic folk of our generation — like a fine beard of knowledge!
To embrace winter is to accept its chilling tale of inward adventure, the splendors of the natural world that it is responsible for manifesting and a reminder of the potential for positive change that abounds us everyday.
The best of luck to you in uncovering a personally meaningful winter experience!
-Vale
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