Too Cold

It’s too cold. Too damn cold.

Dear Too Damn Cold,

I know. And it is awful when you step outside and feel as if the world was created just to badger you into submission. When the wind howls you into a frenzy. But we were indeed made for change. We were made to survive—but survival is an art, a dance, the grit in the teeth. Winter reminds us we have to fight for it—like we have to fight for everything good we want to see and be and do and love. Winter teaches us how to love. Winter teaches us how to love what we believe can grow in spring, even though we see no evidence of it. I’m cold too. It’s just hard to be alive and it’s hard to be alive within being alive—you know? We can so easily numb out and check out and slip under the covers but to be alive means to let the cold bite the fingers and awaken us to the mystery of pain and love all around. This always hurts. Maybe it's all a lesson of loving what arrives for us, especially when we hate it. Or maybe it is just cold outside. I always look to how the wild does it. How do the wolves survive the winter? I am not sure of course, but I know it has something to do with surviving together. Maybe it’s less of the cold and more of what the cold shows us we need.

with warm and care for all that chills you to the bone,

—The Complaint Department