Hmm, I’ve mixed feelings when looking at the gorgeous foliage. It’s beautiful. There’s no denying it. The fallen leaves are a golden carpet on the ground. I passed a wooded area today, and the trees were decked out in a beautiful costume matching the golden carpet on the ground. And I see winter peeking behind the foliage.
You can always tell the ones who really enjoy cold weather. They say that they feel invigorated and they look dressed for summer no matter the temperature. They make me feel a bit warmer with their light clothing and, in passing them, I usually say to myself, “Look at that. What’s the matter with you?” And with all my might I try to like the cold. These people are my cold weather inspiration. They keep me on my toes. They give me food for thought.
I know there are endless ways to greet cold weather and keep the body warm – adding lots of cinnamon on steel cut oats, or other foods that marry well with cinnamon, as cinnamon is supposed to rev up circulation, and eating hot and spicy foods. Mexican delivery men ride bikes in very cold weather wearing light clothing. I’ve seen from restaurant experience that their intake of spicy foods “warms their innards.” As I thought more about this, I began to remember that as a child I wasn’t a cold-weather wimp. I’d roll in the snow with friends, clothes soaked, mittens so wet they could be wrung out. And there was ice skating on the bitterest of cold days, playing games like Whip with wind and face meeting. The word cold never mentioned til it was time to go inside and strip the wet, cold clothes from our bodies.
After all those years of frolicking in the cold and snow, whatever happened to me? Actually I think I know, and I don’t believe it has anything to do with age. I’ve met some old young people, and seen some young old people. I feel it’s this, in my childhood there was no weatherman on TV announcing the cold and telling us to bundle up because it’s mighty cold outside. We had no one whispering in our ears morning, noon and night. No stores crammed with “cold-weather gear.” Sure, we had clothes for winter, but nothing that would suggest we would freeze and needed to worry about the cold. This and similar reasons is what happened, I feel. I decided this year to do what we all did once up a time. Get dressed for a winter’s day, go outside and enjoy whatever kind of day it happens to be, no matter the temperature. It’s time for a shift in mind and not let the word cold have an impact. I’m not gonna let it happen anymore. Winter, I’m waiting for yer.
In the sky there is no east nor west.
We make those distinctions in the mind,
then believe them to be true.
Everything in the world comes from the
mind, like objects appearing from the
sleeve of a magician.
-Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra