Reincarnated

If I were of the sort to believe in reincarnation, I'm sure I must have been a green thing in another life. I look outside and see the sleeping flora, covered with snow, trying to keep warm. They're not doing much, merely subsisting enough to survive until spring. There's not enough heat or light to energize them enough to thrive, and so it is with me.

I don't know what kind of flower or plant I was, but this quiz says I'm a daffodil. "You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard." Ha! Probably true. All of it. But it's winter and I don't feel like partying.

For years, I've said I would be happy to hibernate all through winter and I do this as much as I'm allowed. After working as a dental hygienist full- and part-time for over 26 years, now I only work half a day a week on a regular basis. I have a husband that goes out every day to make a real living so I can do this, and he expects little in return. He understands me. I feel guilty periodically and summon up the energy to cook a decent supper, dust the tables and vacuum a floor or two. But for the most part, I count down the days until the thermometer allows me to go outside with nothing more than a light jacket, and spend them reading and napping and tending to my plants. Then of course, there is the internet which is my link to the outside world. I could be the Dot Com Gal.

I have to interject here that I do have fibromyalgia, which certainly affects my everyday life and the lack of energy therein. But being a mostly positive person, I try not to let it rule my life any more than it does and some days I fight it with all I have. I'm much too young to let it get the best of me. But even before I was diagnosed, hunkering down for the winter looked mighty good to me.

It was -6° this morning when I got up and the wind chill was something like -15°. Cars won't start in that weather. Pipes freeze. Frostbite occurs in minutes for unprotected skin. The news people advised us to bring in our cats, because even though they have plenty of thick, warm fur to keep their bodies warm, their ears and paw pads can freeze quickly. So we have seven cats in the house. SEVEN! I feel like I'm living in a kennel. But there are few things more satisfying than curling up on the couch with a quilt and a purring kitty or two and taking a nap together while winter's out there doing its thing.