Winter Resolutions

Winter is not my favorite season.  There are a lot of reasons:

1. It is cold!  Of course, in Israel I really shouldn’t have complained about the cold, very clear to me when I see the photos of friends all over the world sinking into two meters of snow.  Here in Italy, it is a bit colder, but far from being extreme.  There is more precipitation than in an Israeli winter, but where we are there is almost no snow, though we see plenty on the mountain tops. 

But it doesn’t change the fact that I do not like the cold (yes, I know, in the heat of summer I often wish for winter to come….rationality doesn’t always come into play…), and because all forms of heating are very expensive, I try to use as little as possible. So I use a lot of sweaters and blankets.  I tried using special heating socks – you put them in the micro to warm them and then they are supposed to keep your feet warm.  Well, don’t waste your money – they work for a few minutes only.  Double socks and furry house shoes are the way to go…
Don't think I have gained weight when you see me in winter. What I have gained is layers of clothing.  Three or four layers is average for a normal winter day, and when the temperature goes down to zero or below…well, the Michelin Man has nothing on how I look.  Of course it is sometimes very difficult to move, as I tend to bounce off of things.  But it does the job of keeping me reasonably warm. 
And in the spring, everything thinks I look great after losing all that weight!

2. It is dark!  I am a morning person, whose morning most of the year starts at about 5 in the morning.  But when I wake up and it is pitch black outside, there is certainly no reason to get up.  The dogs fortunately are not enthusiastic either about getting up and out in the dark, since I just can’t make myself get up to face the cold before there is at least a glimmer of dawn.  And then at 5 in the afternoon, it is already dark again!  Where has the day gone????  I really don’t know how people in the far north survive the winter with months of no daylight at all…
3. I have a birthday in the middle of the winter.  Not only am I depressed about winter itself, but added to it all, I am officially another year older!  I don’t want to think of myself as older, I would like to freeze time – but I guess I missed out on that, because I would have done it about 25 years ago…I try to ignore my birthday, and fortunately in our house there is only one small mirror.  But in these days of Facebook, it is impossible – there are always thousands of greetings to remind me that I am getting old, including those from people who I have never met and really don’t know who they are…
4. There is a New Year!  I have never been one to celebrate New Year’s Eve.  I don't think there are any huge and expensive celebrations around here, people here mostly celebrate holidays as a chance to spend time and have a meal with family – a very good idea, I think! Once, many, many years ago, I was in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.  It was quite an experience, and I have never had the slightest urge to repeat it or anything like it.  January 1 is a work day, like every other day of the year, the dogs couldn’t care less….
5. My dogs, like me, are not enthusiastic about winter.  The podengos, if they had the chance, would spend the winter curled under the blankets without sticking their noses out.  Hibernation would certainly be a positive choice for them.

The collies seem to have forgotten that they are Scottish in origin.  No way, they say, we are Israeli collies, and living in Italy is not always to their taste.  The fact is that it is not the cold that bothers them, it is the wet.  On bright clear and very cold days, they love running around and playing.  But when there is rain, when the ground is wet and muddy, their attitude is very different.  How can I expect them to put their dainty and delicate feet down on that cold wet ground???? They tiptoe around the yard, looking for spots that are less wet to step on, which gives them a very strange looking gait.  Except for the necessities of nature, they stay on the concrete path by the door, looking at me pitifully and making it clear that they are ready to come in.  It is quite a sight watching them when they have to pee – they walk around and around and back and forth, tiptoeing and looking for a spot where it is less cold when they lower themselves to the ground to do their business.  They of course are not touching the ground, but they act as if their delicate organs will be frozen if they are not very careful about choosing a spot.

The worst of them is Jenny.  If you remember the story of the princess and the pea, that is her.  The slightest bit of mud on the ground, and she is reluctant to move at all, picking her feet up carefully and trying as much as possible not to touch the ground.  Winter is a hard time for Jenny…

The Canaans do not really care. They go out and run and play, whatever the weather.  Nina, if she was a horse, would be known as a mudder – she is completely indifferent to the mud puddles around, splashing through them and ending up with feet and chest covered with mud, which she happily carries into the house.  She really seems to enjoy it. Only Habibi agrees with me that winter, cold and damp are not fun.  He is reluctant to go out when it is raining, although otherwise the wet ground and puddles don't bother him much.

However, all of these depressing facts of winter do make me think.  There are so many crossroads through all these years where I could have chosen to go another way, and that would have changed my life completely.  Who knows where it would have led, what I would be doing now, with whom and where and why….

My life has never been easy, and certainly is not now.  The last year has been very difficult.  But it has never been boring, and certainly is not now!  I have never had regrets about the road I have chosen, even though another road may have brought me an entirely different life.  There is no going back, and there is never any reason to regret things that can’t be changed.  The only way to go is forward – there are still many choices to make, each one leading in another direction…

But in the spirit of the New Year, I decided to make a few resolutions:

1. Don’t expect people to be smart; appreciate the ones that are.

2. Learn to remember people’s names, not just the names of their dogs.

3. Try not to log on to FB more than five times a day.

4. Continue to believe what I see in my mind and not what I see in the mirror.

5. Take as much care about what I am eating as I do with what I feed my dogs.

6. Let my mind continue to run free and keep my mouth shut.

7. Keep learning – and especially Italian!

                8.  Help others to learn.

                9.  Try and stay smarter than my smart phone, and keep it functioning as                        a telephone, not as the manager of my life.

              10. Appreciate the good things in my life and how good my life really is, in comparison to the things that could be.  There are so many that have a much more difficult life than me!

        11. Be grateful for friends, real ones, who are rare and a pearl without price.  Try and let them know how much they mean to me.  Also virtual ones, who sometimes are the best.

        12.  Always be surrounded by dogs!

        13.  Keep your eyes open and always appreciate the beauty around you.

        14.  Keep surviving.  Never give up.

Happy New Year everyone!  May the new year bring you all you wish for!

Really????Are you serious????