The Summer Within

After work, I enjoyed my walk to the car. It was in the upper forties and partly cloudy. Not bad for a winter’s day. On my way home, I called my little brother in Oklahoma. It didn’t take long before we started talking about the weather. He said it was cold, real cold. The high temperatures were in the single digits with a hope of getting above that sometime in the next week. The forecast for the night called for 12-16 inches of snow. This was the conservative projection as most of the models called for much more. Ouch!

In the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter. In parts of North America, it is the coldest it has been in decades. The winter is cold. It is dark. Life slows down, and in some instances, comes to a standstill. The winter doesn’t offer us much hope. Our only hope is that it will pass.

For many, the winter came in the Spring of last year (2020). A virus came and forced us into isolation. The economy slowed down, in some cases, it came to a standstill. Just like a seasonal winter, we huddled indoors separated from the ones we loved. We looked out our windows, waiting for the day we could finally reemerge from our hibernation. Some of us are still waiting.

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer.

Albert Camus

In the depth of winter, some were able to thrive. They realized that life must still go on even in this time of darkness. And no matter how cold it got, no matter how isolated they were, there was still an incredible warmth within them. When others lost hope, they forged ahead.

Winter comes and winter goes. Eventually, even the worst winters will past. We can all find the invincible summer within us. We can cultivate the heat and the force that gives life to us and those around us.

Feature photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash