Today, May 1, 2021, the song I am dedicating to you is:

My Hit Parade: Another Place-Another Time By Jerry Lee Lewis.

Winter dragged on and on and on. By mid-February the lichen on a birch tree offered the only fleck of color in a landscape that ranged from gray to grayer to grayest. Everything I wore seemed dark, bulky, or boring and our secluded roads were often smothered in snowdrifts or glazed by freezing rain. Increasingly crabby and out of sorts, I recognized all the symptoms of cabin fever.

Then I remembered how Kathryn had coped with the same ailment more than 20 years before. At that time my husband and I ran an appliance repair shop. One wintry afternoon, an elderly widow called us to fix her hot water heater. Knowing she was alone, we responded the same day, easily locating her isolated, small log cabin in the deep snow.

We must have looked startled when she opened the door wearing an ancient ivory evening gown, high heels, and a gray wool cardigan. She noted our surprise, smoothed her satin skirt and muttered, “I get so tired of winter clothes.” Without further preamble, she led us to the faulty heater.

Kathryn passed away several years ago, but I still smile when I remember her refusal to cave to the winter doldrums.

Gail Thorell Schilling

Sharing a story on “how to survive the winter doldrums.” You can change your own narrative.

kommonsentsjane