Ahlin: Winter’s bitterness and sweetness – InForum

Gentle snowflakes float down exterior as I sit heat and comfortable at my laptop, small flakes, becoming a member of inches of snow amassed through the evening. My eye is drawn to a pine tree a couple of block away, which is the most important factor in view. Though I’m undecided it’s taller than the 2 pines that flank the playhouse in our yard, it’s as full as they’re skinny: majestic moderately than Charlie-Brownish.

The world is white: white floor, white air, white sky: white-painted every thing. Hidden behind the white (someplace!) is the solar, which may make the entire world sparkle, if solely it may break via.

Not right this moment.

And that brings odd reactions to recent winter scenes on this Northland the place we reside to the fore, reactions we’re sheepish about: How can we really feel contentment once we know the white stuff have to be shoveled, once we know the harshness of below-zero temperatures will arrive on the heels of recent snow and future ugly-dirtiness of this identical snow will final till an unseasonable soften or (sigh) the arrival of spring lastly intervenes?

On the telephone with a buddy who’s lived away from North Dakota for 50 years, most all within the Southwest, we talked climate, and she or he stated, “I don’t understand how you stand the North Dakota chilly. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

I discovered myself smiling however shunned saying, “In fact you might.” In spite of everything, since her husband’s demise a number of years in the past, she’s dug up and repaired her yard’s sprinkler system and hung out on her roof to find out whether or not the “swamp field” air conditioner was value saving. She’s energetically gardened in her husband’s reminiscence, particularly harvesting fruit bushes, dehydrating peaches and apricots and figs, then packing them as much as ship to mates like me. (Self-sufficiency in human type describes my buddy.) The one flummoxing factor in her life appears to be chilly: she can not bear it.

I don’t argue; in spite of everything, my very own getting older bones perceive the pleasure of heat.

But, watching snowflakes fall, the tranquility I expertise says well-being isn’t temperature dependent and issues snow and chilly trigger are aggravating—even harmful—however not definitive. Winter’s bitter chilly and beautiful magnificence co-exist the identical method life’s heartaches and joys mingle. Magically, there may be peace within the paradox of this Northland’s brutal magnificence.

(Does that imply tranquility can’t be discovered on a Florida seaside or an Arizona mesa? Oh, pshaw, ye sand-loving snowbirds; competitors for contentment shouldn’t be the purpose.)

Our pine bushes have been planted 100 years in the past, a couple of half-century earlier than Charles Schultz’s “Peanuts” caricature turned “Charlie-Brownish” into an adjective. Snow-laden is as pretty as they get, however let’s simply say, they’ll by no means be tapped for nationwide Christmas tree.

I’ve watched them for 43 of their winters, whereas youngsters grew up, grandchildren got here alongside, and life modified and altered and altered. They aren’t majestic however they’re outdated mates. And below a mantle of white we’re all content material.

Jane Ahlin lives in Fargo and is a frequent contributor to The Discussion board’s opinion pages. Electronic mail her at janeahlin@yahoo.com.

This column doesn’t essentially mirror the opinion of The Discussion board’s editorial board nor Discussion board possession.