There are two types of people in New England: Either you love winter – the cold, crisp days; the beauty of a fresh snowfall; activities like skiing, snow shoeing, and outdoor ice skating - or you don’t.
I’ve been firmly in the second camp for a long time. Each year I’ve dreaded and then detested icy roads, uncleared sidewalks, low personal energy levels, lots of days where outdoor activities feel unpleasant, and especially darkness that sets in around 4 pm. I miss sitting outside, seeing more vibrant outdoor colors, keeping windows open. . . . Friends rightfully warned me not to start my retirement in the season I like least, because that would be a tough time to manage drastic change and establish new routines. I’m happy I retired in summer.
So it’s been a huge surprise to discover that I don’t hate winter this year as much as I usually do. At least not yet.
It’s only early January, in a year with below-average snow and ice. I may feel differently by the end of February. But even after a week of high wind and bitter cold that have greatly cut down some of my favorite activities like walking and running outside, I’m still not counting the days until spring.
And I’m trying to figure out why retirement has changed my attitude a bit when so many other efforts to embrace the season didn’t.
It’s not that “I don’t have to drive to work in bad weather” – that’s great, by the way, but not new, since I’d been working from home even before the pandemic.
I think it’s mostly because I’m finally able to live a winter life the way my body and psyche want to experience the season.
After working a full day in the dead of winter, it was harder to do much more than my job and chores. Almost none of my weekday free time was in daylight. I couldn’t re-energize by eating outside or going for a walk after dinner in daylight. In hindsight, I can see that work stress in winter took more out of me than work stress in better weather.
When I first retired, I did a lot of things outside. I also planned to take online classes and work on some coding, crafting and house projects, but figured some of those should wait until the weather got bad.
That time is now, and I’ve transitioned to doing more indoor things. For example, I’m almost done with the first version of a hobby generative AI project I’ve been wanting to build since before I retired. Completing it will be satisfying. I’ve done a little freelance writing. And, I’m enjoying an online course on photo editing with Luminar Neo software.
I’m also able to focus more on morning self-care like relaxing with a cup of tea and increasing my morning meditation time from a miserly 5 minutes to a still-miserly-but-better 10 minutes. I don’t have the background hum that I really need to get started on the rest of my day, either because I have job-related work to do or I want to get out and enjoy the sunshine. I still have plenty of chores and longer-term projects to face (decluttering, anyone?). But on many days, there’s enough space to fit in the time-urgent tasks – with some down time to spare. That’s definitely new.
It would have been swell to have effective winter self-care routines when I was working. But for whatever reasons, I didn’t. Now, having more time for my life is paying some unexpected dividends.
I haven’t had a personality transplant: I still hate early sunsets and biting cold. I vastly prefer spring. But I’m finally able to appreciate some good things about winter too. Instead of wishing it all away.
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