A Winter’s Thought

Reverend Zakir at the pulpit.

I’ve never understood those summer reading lists. When do people get a chance to read in the summer when the mountains are calling us to join in the beauty. Have you noticed how the days are getting longer? Though I’m sure the days are not longer now than in November, it seems like there is more sun every day. I noticed the days were getting longer a week after Christmas. What I think is really going on for me is that I want the days to get longer and warmer. I think I want the days to get longer and warmer so bad that I will look for any sign it’s happening. 

Now isn’t that the way we all do things. Don’t we look for any trend toward the positive? Wait, I’m the one who says fall is my favorite time of year. I’m the one who says that when the days are shorter I don’t feel guilty about being inside reading and not working on something outside. I’m the one who loves the cooler weather and the cold clear skies that come with the cold.

If all this is true then what am I doing looking for the days to get longer? Well, there are several possible answers, none of which would be the correct one. I do love the cold weather and those things I can do comfortably at no other time of the year. For instance, did you know that you can search the internet for local trails and get huge amounts of information regarding the numerous hiking trails in the area? Some of the most beautiful trails are better on the cooler days of late winter and early spring. Some trails even carry warnings about walking them in the summer. I know, I know, you will say, “the trails are so muddy now,” and you would be right. But mud season in the Grand Valley is short and sweet. 

And that is my point. Those old Bible writers knew what they were talking about when they offered comfort for the inevitable; “to everything there is a season.” Winter is reading season.

What really bothers me about myself is that I never seem to be contented with what is, even if I want what it is. If I’m reading, I’m distracted by not being able to get outside. If I’m outside, I’m missing my book. Discontentment!  I was brought-up in Oklahoma with the thinking that if you are not doing something visibly constructive, you aren’t doing anything. This caused real problems with homework reading and some non-visible activities I really love. So if I can’t be out mowing the lawn or some such thing I can be in reading Neal Stephenson or the New York Review or whatever I please and not feel a bit guilty. It isn’t that I don’t want to be out there hiking, I do. Don’t get me wrong, I feel a tinge of guilt even then. It is that I can be in doing some really seemingly wasteful things on these cold evenings and be just fine with my indolence. But there’s still that “discontentment.”

Looking back, I know that nothing is really wasted. It is those wasted moments that gave me the vocabulary to talk to many of our youth. If you have problems relating to them now and then, just watch Monty Python’s Holy Grail and remember a few lines (you won’t be able to help yourself). You will be set. “When true simplicity is gained, we shall turn and turn and not be ashamed.”