January

Quote for the Week

The Lakota Sioux called January The Hardship Moon. This first month of the new year seems to bring out the gloom in people. A quick glance at poetry draws a bleak picture of this cold, winter month.

Shelley in Dirge for the Year, wrote: "January gray is here...."

Christina Rossetti penned in The Months: ""January cold and desolate...." She also wrote: "In the bleak midwinter / Frosty wind made moan / Earth stood hard as iron / Water like a stone:" Brrrr.

Sylvia Plath, no one's idea of an optimism buffet, wrote in Waking In Winter: "Winter dawn is the color of metal,
The trees stiffen into place like burnt nerves."

We get it. We get it. January is bleak. However, I like the stance espoused by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, the author of popular comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.

He said: "I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood."

Takeaway Truth

If it's cold, and you're not at your optimistic best, then wallow a bit. Sometimes that just makes you feel better.