Lazy days

I find winter to have a lot of lazy days. I think its the cold weather which restricts our outdoor time, that makes us less ambitious because in the summer, when the sun is shining and we have all those extra hours of daylight, I find myself feeling guilty if I'm not outside doing something productive. There are always weeds to be pulled and flowers to be deadheaded, or the yard to be picked up. It seems as though every hour of daylight has to be filled - we need to justify our existence. But in the winter, there are no such pressures on us. It's too dark, and too cold, and too difficult to spend much time outside and its so easy to make excuses for time spent relaxing. 

Its winter now and there's no guilt in the winter. We can spend our days in front of the fireplace and simply enjoy the things we don't have time for all summer long. A good book, a long movie, a quiet conversation. These are the gifts of winter. And when I'm busy in the summer, I dream of these quiet days.

Someone on Facebook this past weekend was laughing about our snow here and saying how he'd just mown his lawn out in California. It made me smile actually because his post made me realize how much I loved being right here, in January in East Hampton, enjoying a nice snow day with no guilt at all about a lawn that needed mowing. There was an action adventure movie to watch and it was cold outside! I wasn't going anywhere.

Ah, winter!