It’s subtle, but it’s there – that feeling of change in the air.
Finally! You see, it’s been a long, cold, dark, and hard winter. The kind we used to have when I was a kid and before Global Warming became a “thing.”
However, I think it is important to note that this particularly frigid, and lately atypical, winter does not mean the end of the threat caused by a warming planet. In fact, it is a consequence of it.
Nevertheless, it’s been a challenge for most of us, especially me. I am a byproduct of Sicilian ancestry, dark-skinned and highly tolerant of the sun and heat. So, Summer is my season. Although no one, including me, enjoys those “dog days” of 95% humidity in New York, I can at least tolerate them. But in Winter there are those days when it’s so cold that it can actually be painful to even try to go outside. Heat and humidity can be uncomfortable, but freezing is downright excruciating!..and dangerous. On really cold days, I wear so many layers of clothing that my partner Amanda calls me “Frankie Five Shirts!”
But there is more to “The Winter Blues” than just the frigid temperatures. There are the long, dark days of isolation when the weather conditions make it more difficult to socialize. We live in a friendly neighborhood and have excellent relationships with virtually everyone on our block. And we support those relationships by seeing and greeting one another when we are working on our yards/gardens/homes or simply returning from a stroll through town. It becomes more difficult when frostbite can strike within 10 or 15 minutes! These simple pleasures are, at least for me, what makes life worth living. We do our best to find alternatives during the Winter, but the challenges are still daunting. So, depression and melancholy can take hold.
That’s why these very subtle changes we feel in the weather may seem rather insignificant but are instead vitally important. These signs include the robins I have recently seen returning to feast on the seeds we leave for them in our yard. Among the many other harbingers of the return of Spring, I have noticed for the first time in weeks the snow pack has receded and I can see patches of new, green grass in my yard. I’ve observed small buds on some trees and delicate flowers poking through the defrosting soil. Life is returning. And it couldn’t have come sooner!
They say there is a lesson to be learned from every season. Perhaps the best metaphor for it is from the movie “Being There” when the gardener, Chance, brilliantly played by Peter Sellers, uses his experience tending to his benefactor’s garden to explain that each season has its own purpose. And if we live within that purpose, our garden will continue to grow and all will be well.
We’re almost there folks. Hang in and soon all will be well in the garden. Literally.
Click here if you know someone who needs a warm place.
Frank LoBuono is a Nyack resident, photographer, blogger and retired CBS News journalist.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are those of this independent writer and not the Nyack News & Views editorial staff. We welcome submissions from anybody who is interested in publishing their thoughts, ideas and perspectives about issues facing our community, both large and small. Please send submissions to info@nyacknewsandviews.com.
Photo credit: George Pejoves
