Focus on Life: Week 5

To see my Grow Your Blog post, click here.

Week 5: Get Outside

Sometimes the perfect fix for temporary relief of cabin fever

is simply to get outside, even if you just step out on the porch.

Get out of the house and focus on the change cooler temps

bring to your surroundings.  

In spite of the devastation left behind by the recent ice storm (fallen trees and hydro lines, etc.), you must admit that there is an element of beauty in the ice laden trees.

Along with my winter photo for this week, I thought I would share a poem that I heard on CBC radio this week written by Priscilla Uppal. She is a Toronto poet and English professor at York University and has graciously given me permission to share it with you.

Arctic Vortex

The polar bear helping himself to my morning paper

and yesterday’s third round of take-out

says I’m free to catch a ride with him to work

since my car won’t start—battery dead as a

doornail, and the doornails wedged shut

locking us on the inside, where we’d rather be

glued to the warmth of our televisions—

stunned by the magic of outdoor ice hockey

games in Los Angeles stadiums, reminiscing

about snow days and epic snow ball fights,

the invention of snow pants and feet warmers

and arena hot chocolate—not real chocolate,

like they brew today, but the thin watery kind 

with the powdered marshmallows still digesting decades

later in our stomachs, rumors of Abominable

Snow Men, cities separating on ice floats, 

the temptations of toboggans & tongues on poles.

Not this cruel reminder that even the squirrels

are busting a gut at how low we all are

on supplies for our emergency kits—

how undignified our attempts at fire-starting,

how hopelessly those of us without landlines

now read by candlelight.

My morning shower felt like being trapped

inside a snow globe that the winter just refuses

to put down. We’re shaking white and grey,

wondering what we did to deserve such a blast

of disdain from mother earth— though I suppose it’s

true we rarely call unless we want something—

looking forward to the sweet moment we’ll stash

the shovels back in our sheds.

But for now the snowy owl has found refuge

inside the feather pillows on my king-sized bed.

And I should be amazed but I’m too distracted

by the frost against my windows and the chattering

teeth of hydro poles sputtering out last breaths. 

I weep icicles on the dashboard knowing I will soon join

that row of penguins in black-and-white suits 

marching, like the instinctual creatures they are,

in unison to the subway. 

As much as we complain about the cold weather in winter, we also commiserate about the hot weather in summer and the rain in spring. But you know what? I'd really miss the changing of the seasons if I were suddenly transported to a locale with a year-round tropical climate. We are truly blessed to live in a country of contrasts. There is beauty in every season, even winter, so get outside and enjoy it!

You can listen to the author reading her poem during a segment on Metro Morning this week called 'Embracing the Weather'.

To see the winter photos of the other participants, please check out the links below...