Mother Nature is on some kind of roller coaster, or she is issuing her own version of menopause upon us this winter. One day she’s hot, the next day she’s cold, and in the most unusual places.

Perhaps she is trying to tell us something.  Is she setting down signs?  Does she want to warn us to take better care of our earth? One has to wonder why she is so moody this year.

While some of the winter conditions this year have been traditional, other conditions have been unexpected or unusual.  And many places have experienced drastic ups and downs in temperatures from one day to the next.

As we are all well aware, Atlanta was hit with an unusual winter storm event earlier this week resulting in traffic nightmares beyond comprehension.  People were stuck in their cars over eight hours in some cases – and struggled as they spun their wheels (literally) over ice covered roads only to move a couple inches, if any.

One news story indicated a father walked six miles to retrieve his child from the school where many students remained overnight because of the inability to get a way home through the traffic jams.  Another story showed two people handing out bottled water and bananas to people waiting in their cars on the highway. As the couple proceeded to the next vehicle, the lady fell right onto her back onto the roadway as her foot lost grip of the road.  It was even dangerous to help.

Yet, the Atlanta people will have a reprieve from their frustrating weather incident almost immediately as their local temperatures returned to the 50’s this week, and is expected to rise into the 60’s by the weekend.  They may not have to think about a winter coat, spinning tires, ice scrapping, or shoveling for quite some time – if ever again this winter. Granted their politicians will be thinking about these scenarios for a long time due to their role of managing “Mother Nature” inappropriately.  But other than that, hopefully this weather struggle will be a far away memory for them.

For us New England’ers, however, the struggle of dealing with cold temperatures will continue for days if not a couple more months.  And Miss Mother Nature will continue to remind us of her controlling powers as we deal with each day of the chilly temperatures and gray skies, with an occasional sunny day to enjoy as a treat or gift on her good days.

It doesn’t help matters that we hear the constant chatter on the weather television stations about how cold it is every day. This only serves as a continual reminder.  In fact, it probably makes us feel colder.  We can’t seem to get it out of our minds.  Each time there is a drop in the temperatures, the news stations seem to go into a frenzy of how awful it will be to deal with, and while we need those forecasts to prepare for our day, we could use to hear a little bit of the plus side of the cold, but gosh, what is it?  It certainly can be challenging to answer that question.

Additionally, there hasn’t been a great deal of snow to play with.  Sometimes the dull-drums of the winter blues can be easily cured with a snowshoe walk on a wooded trail or with a day of sledding with your children on your favorite hill. Perhaps a chance to forget for an hour or so of how the cold temperatures are. You can go skiing, ice fishing, or skating if that is your fancy and this will ward off the Mother Nature blues for the time being.

But, unfortunately, it feels like we are seeing continued brown landscapes, lack of sunshine, and experiencing cold chills the minute we walk out the door. We are still pressing the auto-car start buttons for our vehicles, grabbing our hats, gloves and scarves, and bundling up when we go outdoors.  And our pets certainly let us know, the best thing to do is succumb to it, curl up on a blanket, and sleep it off.

On the occasional sunny, clear skied days – there is a bit of – well “sunlight” to enjoy. This makes cold temperatures a bit more manageable to endure.  And if you are lucky enough to break away from work to visit a greenhouse on a sunny winter day, you can capture the warmth of the sun even more while you are inside the greenhouse.  This will provide immediately relief, which is highly recommended.  You may even feel the inspiration of spring while you enjoy this type of greenhouse spa treatment.

Sometimes, on a really cold day, if our blessed sun is beaming towards you or your house, take a moment to face the sun and close your eyes just for a few minutes. Imagine it is the sun of the summer for as long as you can endure the frigid temps if you do this outdoors.  While you stand there, please tell Mother Nature that you promise if she stops playing these games, we will be kinder to her fellow partner, Mother Earth.  Promise her this, and maybe offer her a foot rub too, to help her cope with her version of menopause temperature swings.

And don’t forget to mention, that you do remember her powers as depicted in the old  70’s Chiffon margarine television commercials.  Don’t you all remember?  The commercial reminded us that…

 “It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.”

Happy Friday Everyone.

Stay Cool – I know it won’t be difficult.

Cathy Testa

Somehow these roots gives us hope to the warm season to follow.  They certainly seemed to enjoying the sun’s rays!