We celebrated our First Warm Day this past Sunday. We ditched our outer shells and sat outside. We roasted hot dogs and drank IPAs. We opted to take the longer walk, stretching our legs and seeing our neighbors seemingly for the first time in months. We almost felt the sun on our skin. I say “almost” because it felt like a whisper, like you had to lean in closer to really feel it.
The First Warm Day is not the new norm. It is the movie trailer, not the premiere. We check the weather each morning, still under layers of quilts, pulsing with desire for that First Warm Day. We must be grateful. We must stay patient.
The First Warm Day signaled the long awaited tapering of The Coldest Days. I will not miss shivering in the car, waiting for the windshield to thaw. I will not miss my nervous footsteps across icy cracked sidewalks. I will not miss the darkness.
But this weekend, we will cook short ribs and potatoes and drink earthy wine and send off our cold weather comfort foods. We will sit under fuzzy blankets and play board games and go outside only to walk with the dog. This weekend, we will say goodbye to winter. A wishful goodbye, perhaps, but my fingers are crossed.
Recommended reading: The Sound of Intimacy by Jenna Kunze
Audio messages are the EKG heartbeats that live next to a blinking cursor on your iMessage screen. Appearing as a blue bar with up-down lines capturing the highs and lows of the spoken word, audio messages are book-ended by a play button. The longer the bar, the longer the note. Mine are often the length of the screen; minutes.
I always look forward to reading these, xo