HUNKERED DOWN

It's warm in my house this morning in spite of the forty degree temperature drop.  The fire is roaring.  I've got it built up a lot more than usual as I'll be here all day.  I'm going to make candy, pack Christmas boxes and do Christmas Cards.  The blizzard we were promised, two to three feet of snow, hasn't panned out quite that much.  

Don't get me wrong, there's snow and plenty of it.  It hasn't stopped snowing yet so who knows what it will amount to but it isn't coming down heavy like yesterday.  Usually it doesn't get as cold as this until the storm has cleared out.  This doesn't bode well.  I'm going to get under my trailer and make sure all the heat tapes are working.  If it feels cold down there I'll put in a portable heater to keep my pipes from freezing up.  

By afternoon I'll have to restock my wood box but that's good exercise.  I'll do it after the dog and I have gone on a walk.  Right now outside is black and white and cold looking.  When it gets really cold during a snow storm it seems to suck the color right out of everything.  That's all right by me as the smell of bacon frying and the coffee pot brewing make up for that.  This time of year I seldom get to indulge ALL senses at the same time.  I have to pace myself and appreciate one or two things at a time.  

It's only seven in the morning and already I have so many reasons to feel grateful.  I may live in a tin box but I've made it into a warm tin box.  The food may not be expensive but it's there and enough to share with my friends tonight.  The display of Christmas lights and decorations is smaller than the days when children filled my home but it is still there and cheerful!  I live alone but I'm making gifts and filling boxes for the people I love best.  Our connection is still strong.  

I live in God's country, cold though it may be, and so far I'm able to do the daily work required to live in this part of Colorado.  I am a person who is basically kept alive on medicines and certainly kept moving by them.  I'm so lucky I live in a time when these things are available.   It allows me an independence I wouldn't have if I lived a hundred years ago.  

I am poor but few of the things I enjoy cost much money so that seldom bothers me in my daily life.  I have a library of music, movies, books and art that will probably last me the rest of my lifetime.  Boredom is never an issue in my life.  Every day presents it's own form of adventure whether it is hitching a ride to work or trying out a new recipe on innocent victims.  

I am grateful for my life and for the possibilities it offers for now and the future.  I guess that's as good a reason to enjoy hunkering down as any!