The Quiet Visitor: January

I am very thankful for our guest, January.  

The year builds up to December, who herself is a bright and blinking crescendo, and sometimes she's too loud, and a bit overdone--wearing out her welcome at times-- always wanting to be busy, and go, go go.   

I am glad that what follows December is the quiet cousin:  a streaky-white skied, frosty, slow month of January.

I actually enjoy that feeling of having nothing on the calendar.  January gives me nothing to do but a birthday for my oldest, my daughter with the blue, blue eyes of January.  We can savor it, unlike the birthday that comes in the whirlwind of December.

I like that there's no urgencies in the yard, except when snow falls and it's time to shovel or blow out the driveway.  Even that makes one feel energetic--to breathe in her crisp air and watch your breath rise in little clouds when it goes out.

I like that January even has the good sense to allow that, once the Christmas stuff is down and the tree is OUT...

she asks me to look around to see what needs to be painted in February, and what I can improve in March, but in the meantime she shows me...

... a warm and inviting quilt; it beckons me to the couch, and on the way, I can choose one of my novels picked up at a garage sale this summer for $1...and she quietly waits while I snuggle up and read, getting up only to change the laundry out or to put a roast in for supper. 

January is a soul-soothing visitor saying "Oh, let's just take it easy today and stay around the house."   In the evening, she suggests I take a nice, hot soaking bath instead of those quick showers taken the other 364 days a year.

I like that she's so quiet I can dream about our garden, thumb through catalogs, but nothing actually has to be done about it yet. 

Yet, some mornings the spread she has outside my window makes me quickly dress and run for the camera to capture the crystal white jewels she's laid over the earth...just for fun, just because it looks pretty.

I like that I can crack open that jar of jam, smear it on my toast, or chill a nice jar of applesauce for my bedtime snack, or maybe even spice up the afternoon with some salsa, and I can taste a little bit of last summer on my tongue, but don't have to worry about the work that went with it, only the enjoyment of the results of our work.

I don't wish January away.

Now, there aren't any guarantees about February or March, but January?

January's grays are REALLY gray, and her blues are REALLY blue, and I welcome and embrace her and enjoy her company...and maybe even see how many novels I can devour while she is still here with us.

I think she's quite pleasant company.....





I like January, do you?