Winter's Coming

There's a feeling I get one day every year. It's like the feeling I got as a kid on Christmas eve and Christmas morning. It's an elated excitement that is so purely joyous I can't contain myself. For at least this day I am transformed back into the kid who is full of wonder, full of delight; it's pretty much magic.

It's the first snow of the year.

Sitting here, looking out hills grown brown with summer heat, watching the thermostat tick up every morning, it's hard to remember that feeling. It's like trying to recapture the same excitement Christmas elicited during childhood once you've grown up; it's a tenuous memory, one that seems to slip away when you try to catch hold.

Luckily, I know that day is coming again soon. It may be August now, but my season pass is purchased, and soon enough the leaves will be turning and flakes will start to fly, that fairy dust that turns adults into kids and turns the city landscape into a snowglobe.

For those of you who love the warmer months, soak it up. You'll have to begrudgingly bundle up in layers soon enough, while my people happily unpack the hats, scarves, jackets, and boots, and dust off the ski gear.

Winter's coming, ready or not.