Sunshine and Frost

We got a bunch of snow yesterday that stuck around on the ground. Tomorrow promises more of the same, up to 30 cm, followed by freezing rain and then just plain rain. But today was a gorgeous sunny in-between day, good for walking around and enjoying the beauty.

It was also cold as heck, mind you, but at least there was little in the way of wind. I'm still pretty phlegmed up and woozy from the rotten head cold I ended up getting Tuesday night, so I decided not to rush or try to get too much done.

I drank some coffee and did some slow yoga and an extra long meditation in the indoor sun before heading out into the cold air for a late brunch and a few Christmas-related errands. Something about the weather/walking/open-schedule combination made me happy to be alive, even while realizing how sad the world I happen to be alive in is. It was almost like a kind of joyful sympathy, if that makes any sense.

I had also just finished reading Charles Bukowski's Women (thanks for the recommendation, Dave), which might have had something to do with my bittersweet mood. The novel was hilarious and dirty and tragic and hopeless and full of real love complicated by desperate desire. Highly readable, in other words.

But so I just wandered around in the freezing cold, in love with everyone I encountered: the helpful girl at the post office, the excitable man in the video store, the couple arguing about soup recipes, and the old lady in her car who smiled when I waved thanks from the crosswalk. They were all so real and fragile and temporarily satisfied with their own impermanence, like delicate flowers in the snow.

Maybe the extreme cold makes us each a bit more aware of our own and each others' mortality, so we become a little more genuine and thoughtful. I don't know. But I easily got all my Christmas presents bought and sent off without resenting any other shoppers, clerks, corporate retail franchises, Christianity, Canada Post, Stephen Harper, late capitalism, or anything. Then I came home to finish the Sunday NY Times crossword and listen to the Lowlife soundtrack in my warm living room. The cats enjoyed the tuba drones on the other sofa and helped me with some of the longer themed answers. There was also time for a pot of tea, some light house-cleaning, and a chat with my mom. It was a great day.