Loving What Is

Winter. Not my favorite season.

I told this story to my yoga instructor on Monday night and she laughed. Laughed! It was 4 degrees outside and a blizzard had settled over our town and she couldn’t have been happier. She said she giggled all day skiing the slopes.

And … here’s the kicker. She had recently relocated from Texas — you know, a warm state.

“How can you not love winter and live here?” she asked, genuinely astonished. “It’s so in your face.”

Indeed.

Now, at this point, my friends in other northern tier states (particularly the eastern ones) are already spouting off reasons why we don’t have it so bad. I mean, buildings aren’t collapsing in Montana, and it’s a dry cold, not a wet cold, and ya da ya da.

I hear ya. I feel your pain. Now, back to mine.

I know there’s no place that’s perfect. A good friend of mine recently told me a story about living in Costa Rica that had me wondering whether I would really want to live somewhere (even in the winter) where you have to keep bull snakes in the rafters to kill the rats running around on the floor.

But anyway … the whole point of this post is not a rant about winter. Just the opposite. My conversation with the yoga instructor taught me that I’m ready to say goodbye to my old stories about winter. I don’t need them anymore. Even if I never move south for the winter, I am learning to let go of the struggle, and make peace with my present. This has been my most positive, healthy winter yet, and I know it’s because I no longer think that somewhere warmer will make me happy.

I can be happy right now, in this present moment, looking out at the snow on the roof. I can be happy reading a book in bed with a hot cup of tea. I can be happy walking with Doug down to the river, watching the ducks and geese swim in the open water like they never felt anything better. I can be happy in a Montana winter. You know why?

I love what is.