Reason #232: Embracing the Season

When we studied Vikings, I learned something quite obvious. They took a winter break. It was too cold for raids. Being up north it was pretty dark too. They brought their animals into their homes and just hunkered down for a few months. And celebrated Yule.

I find myself thinking of the Vikings now at Christmas time. Oh, our town is SO COLD recently!!! I don't know that it's been above freezing for more than a week. And it's dark outside. We haven't let the chickens into our home, but we have noted we haven't seen them come out of theirs. We are hunkering down, and I love it!

I LOVE the winter! It is my favorite season. When you are a kid it's an easy season to love. I remember pretending for hours out in the snow. My dad built us ice-skating rinks in our back yard. Winter meant power-outages at our house, and snow days when my mom would wake me by putting another blanket on my bed and whispering to sleep on because school was cancelled. What could be better!?!

I think for many adults winter loses it's magic, but I was blessed to NOT have a driver's licence 'til I was 20 and didn't own a car 'til I was married. So I was still walking in the snow to and from work. I didn't have to scrape a car, or freeze as I waited for one to heat up. I trudged out, bundled up, into the wonderland of my youth and had streets to myself for quiet reflection and a dash of whatever I was imagining. Inside, I might have the lights off, snow gazing into the blizzard outside illuminated by the street light. (I wrote a poem about this. I'll have to post it if I can dig it up.)

Anyway, the magic lives on for me because I have kids. Kids are the best carriers of the torch of magic. But chatting with my husband today, I realized he isn't so lucky. Not only does he drive to work in a cold car he's had to clear the snow from, but he IS working. He is still out conquering the day. And his day doesn't get any shorter when the sun sets early.

It's not just my husband in this predicament, but MOST adults and even children. No one gets a season off anymore. We have light and centralized heat and so why shouldn't we continue being productive, right? We are in conquer-mode ALL YEAR LONG. Winter is just one more thing to overcome.

But I don't know that we, as a race, are wired that way. In fact, when you look at nature, to be in one setting ALL the time is down-right unnatural. Almost all living things have cycles and seasons. I wonder if the seasonal slump so many feel is really just wearing out from going all the time.

THAT is the beauty of homeschooling. We homeschoolers have the freedom to embrace what IS. (Of course, everyone - working adults and kids in school - has this freedom too. It's just harder to find time to exercise.) Anyway, it is cold. It is Christmas. It might be snowing outside. We might want to snuggle by the fire and read for hours. And instead of fighting all of that, we can embrace it! The Vikings didn't cease to be Vikings because they were hunkering down. And we won't cease to be families on a great quest to discover all life has to teach if we take a moment to relax and enjoy the season. Blessedly, THAT is one of life's lessons. Take a while to learn it well!