Michigan weather…Michigan words

Ahhh…Michigan, it’s a land where our weather rules the meaning of our words. Take the words up and down for example. In Michigan, 40 degrees is UP in January…but in July, 60 degrees is DOWN. In Michigan, when someone says it’s a beautiful day, it can mean it’s a day of soft breezes, blue skies and 80 degrees. Or…softly falling snow and 25 degrees. Or…the first spring day you actually open a window. Or…an autumn colored day and sweater weather. In Michigan when someone tosses you an “Is it hot enough for ya?” what they’re really saying is “Are you friggin’ kidding me? You can fry an egg on my old bald head”. And when the Michigan weather folks predict “A little snow”, we bring in the dogs and gas up the snow blower. The meaning of our words changes with the seasons. Michigan weather…Michigan words…we understand.

Shake It Off

Let’s shake off the winter wearies like we would a tattered old coat. Let’s welcome back the sunshine from its long winter’s nap and open the windows to let in the tick, tick, tick of a springtime sprinkler and the sound of a ballgame drifting across the backyards from a radio on someone’s deck. It’s time to lower our shoulders from the tensions of the silver shivers and raise our eyes from the frozen sidewalks to watch a sweet breeze blow clouds around a bright blue sky. Let’s get on with this season of unclenching and leave winter’s baggage behind. Let’s get on with doing a little spring cleaning of the heart and soul so that we’ll have room for some fresh thoughts and new ideas. Let’s shake off the winter wearies like a tattered old coat. The gift of another time around has been given to all of us. All the cold and dark has melted away. All roads are open to us now. This is the season to choose one...and see where it leads.

Hey Spring

Hey Spring...this is what I’m talking about. C’mon...you can do it. Looks like you’re getting your act together and startin’ to kick a little ice around here. Keep it coming. Turn it up to warm and get those daffodil heads poking up through the tundra. And hey there Mr. Red, Red Robin…we are ready for some full time bobbin’ around here. Even though Old Man Winter really showed his age this time around, it’s still been too brown and gray and window closed and all cooped up for too long. We need you to start getting on with the greenery. C’mon Spring...you can do it. Flex your crocuses and give the cold, old geezer a good swift kick in his frozen pants. And tell him not to let the garden gate hit him in the icicles as he heads north. Turn up the thermostat Spring and let the T-shirts begin. It’s tulip time. C’mon...you can do it. Get the sap running and the grass growing. It’s time to smell the lilacs and slap some mosquitoes. C’mon spring you can do it. Get out there...put up your dukes...and give the North Wind the old what for. This is what I’m talking about. Don’t turn back…don’t give up now…don’t turn into some kind of…Pansy.

Sounds Like a Plan

I plan it so carefully. I stand at the window for minutes studying the scene before me. Check the treetops for telltale signs. Is the neighbor’s flag giving any input? What about the clouds…anything there? And then…and only then…when I feel my calculations are correct…I make my move. Appropriate gear on and in place. Garage door open. Choke…check. Prime…as directed. Engine engaged and ready. Directional chute aimed perfectly. One last visual check to confirm calculations. I’ve got everything figured perfectly. So, off my snow blower and I go, plowing into the great, white wonderland that is my driveway this morning. It’s almost immediately that the wind direction I observed, plotted, calculated and studied so intently…changes. I’m instantaneously covered, head to frozen toes, with most of the snow I had so intelligently and carefully planned to end up over there…not over me. It’s Mother Nature’s great practical joke. And it gets me every time.

Old not Up

Is it possible for us to grow old...without growing “up”? Now growing older does make certain things inevitable. I mean, gravity kicks in for one. And some of us, though not nearly enough of us, will gain a certain measure of maturity and wisdom and that’s a good thing. After all, there will be the tasks that older people have to do, check books to balance, Monday morning alarm clocks to answer to, even older tomorrows to plan for and children to raise if we're lucky. But can we grow older without losing our ability to wonder...giggle...imagine what if...and hang on to a dream or two? I hope some of us can. And I really hope I will be one of those some. I see too many people who have grown “up” way before their time. The ones who don’t see Autumn’s beauty...they curse the coming of winter. They don’t hear a child’s laughter...they complain about the noise. And they haven’t wished upon a star in years...they’ve forgotten how. Can we grow old without growing “up”? Well...I’m going to give it my best shot. How about you?

What if?

Thought of this older post today. Not quite sure why. What if there is no heaven, no spiritual afterlife, no freeing of the soul from its physical body to seek another plane of existence? What if when you draw your last breath and your heart beats its last…it truly is over? You would feel no sorrow because you wouldn’t feel at all. There would be no guilt over anything done or not done. There would be no regrets, no what ifs, no what might have beens, no disappointments lingering in your soul…because you wouldn’t have one. You…would be over. You would never know that you ever existed. To you it wouldn’t matter how richly or poorly you felt you lived your life or how you treated people or how people treated you because you…no longer exist. There would be no memories, no thoughts to look back fondly on, no judgement…no nothing. Your spirit and its amazing beauty, wonder, curiosity and capability to love, hate, hurt and heal…would stop with that last breath and beat. The end. I find that odd. I can’t quite get my hands around the thought that a being capable of creating music…would not go on…somehow…somewhere.

Christmas Past

Well…Christmas time is over this year. All the outside decorations are looking a little windblown and tattered. The bows along the fence are all a little crooked and the garland is sagging a bit. And a few of the twinkling lights don't seem to have any twinks left this year. As I walk past the tree I can hear the sound of dry needles tinkling as they dance on decorations while heading to the floor. It's time to once again wrap baby Jesus up in tissue paper along with Mary, Joseph, three sheep, two camels, a donkey and two of the three wise men we have left in this old nativity scene and put them in the box marked living room. All the Santas and Snowmen come off the mantle and the last of the pistachios is gone. I'll vacuum up the fallen needles and fill the house one last time the smell of Christmas tree. It's time to move into this New Year and see what it holds. It's time to put the magic away for a while…but only for a while. See, it's only 11 1/2 months until Christmas.