{"id":2055,"date":"2013-02-15T20:17:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T20:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/02\/a-fading-winters-night.html"},"modified":"2013-02-15T20:17:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T20:17:00","slug":"a-fading-winters-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/02\/a-fading-winters-night.html","title":{"rendered":"A fading winter’s night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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As a kid, I used to love winter. \u00a0Why not? \u00a0It meant that great non-committal end of the\u00a0twelfth\u00a0month winter holiday celebration was just around the corner. \u00a0It meant vacation! \u00a0Of course we only had about a week vacation then. \u00a0We had half day the day before Christmas Eve. \u00a0Then we came back the day after New Year\u2019s. \u00a0Still, a vacation is a vacation. \u00a0 It never dawned on me that the first day back was a drag because there would be no more vacations until Summer Break. \u00a0Back then we had no Spring Break. We had Good Friday and the day after Easter and that was it. <\/p>\n

But winter meant snow. \u00a0It mean snowball fights, building snow forts, building snowmen. \u00a0It was hot chocolate and cuddling up in a blanket watching Super Host\u2019s Mad Theater <\/i>on Saturday afternoons. \u00a0If we were lucky, and the snow came near that rascally holiday whose name can no longer be mentioned, it brought a special magic with it. <\/p>\n

And yet, for some reason, winter has decreased as autumn, and yes spring, have increased. \u00a0Call me Christian, but once I began to invest myself in my Christian faith, I came to love\u00a0Easter\u00a0 \u00a0The first time I attended a sunrise service (common in Protestant\u00a0denominations\u00a0that don\u2019t have Easter Vigils), I was hooked. \u00a0From that day, back in 1992, I began to enjoy spring more than ever. \u00a0When I was young, spring meant blustery days and rain and mud and staying indoors. \u00a0It mean winter \u2013 and that <\/i>Holiday \u2013 were done for the year, and with a December birthday, the next round of loot would be months and another school year away. \u00a0It meant that time I had to get through until Summer Vacation and Alice Cooper songs.<\/p>\n

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But now, for some reason, I tend to see the\u00a0lilies\u00a0more. \u00a0I see the sparrows and the flowers and the coming to life. \u00a0Perhaps it\u2019s because I connect the rebirth of Spring with the triumph over death and the new birth of the Faith. \u00a0Maybe it\u2019s because life and becoming new is more natural, with children changing and growing each year, and the growing\u00a0realization\u00a0that I\u2019m closer to the end than the beginning. <\/p>\n

Fall is still there, as I\u2019ve said time<\/a>\u00a0and time<\/a>\u00a0and time<\/a>\u00a0again. \u00a0I still love it for the reasons I always have, though less for nostalgia anymore than the fun times with the boys. \u00a0I sometimes wonder if it, too, will fade when they have grown and moved on with their lives. \u00a0And when that happens, will Spring finally take its rightful place as the seasonal high point of my year? \u00a0<\/p>\n

Who knows. \u00a0Just a thought as I saw the above picture I took some weeks ago finally come through. \u00a0It was during the weeks of snow we were pelted with, and I took advantage to pull off the road and click a picture. You can almost feel the hushed silence. \u00a0Everything quiet. \u00a0Everything\u00a0dead. \u00a0But spring is around the corner. Lent is already here. \u00a0We\u2019ve been reminded of the dead, now we prepare for the living. \u00a0I\u2019d like to think that\u2019s the real heart of my growing love for this once overlooked season that is fast becoming the time of year I yearn for more than any.<\/p>\n

But who knows. \u00a0Maybe it\u2019s that now I have to drive in the snow, and I just want the\u00a0hassle\u00a0to go away. \u00a0You never know.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a kid, I used to love winter. \u00a0Why not? \u00a0It meant that great non-committal end of the\u00a0twelfth\u00a0month winter holiday celebration was just around the corner. \u00a0It meant vacation! \u00a0Of course we only had about a week vacation then. \u00a0We had half day the day before Christmas Eve. \u00a0Then we came back the day after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA fading winter's night<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As a kid, I used to love winter.  Why not?  It meant that great non-committal end of the twelfth month winter holiday celebration was\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/02\/a-fading-winters-night.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A fading winter's night\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a kid, I used to love winter.  Why not? 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