OK, everyone, pull up a chair. Make sure to grab slippers and hot drinks in hand-warming mugs.
Don’t rush. We’ve got lots of time. When the sun rises after 7 a.m. and sets at 4 p.m., signals get confused and it can feel like midnight by dinnertime, but it’s not. We’ve got hours and hours to go before we sack out.
We’ve got time to strategize about how to thrive in January in Maine.
Every season has personality flaws and insults that require forgiveness. Mushy, mucky ground, bird-size mosquitos, freight-train wind and driving rain. But winter, and especially January, demands coping mechanisms I don’t need the rest of the year.
Refusing to go outside in certain temps, when you’ve reached a certain age, is a legitimate survival strategy. I endorse it and practice it until I feel confined and grumpy.
There was a point in my life when I jumped out of bed in the frigid dawn hours and went running with a special mask over my nose and mouth to save my lungs from the cold. My breath would freeze around the air holes and when I got home, the mask and I would thaw and I’d do it again the next day.
That time’s long past and now my daily outdoor cardio comes when I careen out my back door, waving my arms and shouting to evict the freeloading seagulls that tromp and poop on my new roof. (If anyone has a more effective seagull solution, feel free to send a letter to the editor. Please don’t suggest an owl decoy. Ours, with a lifelike twisting head, fell over, and the seagulls are still laughing.)
It’s possible backcountry skiing helped me reel in Roger, but for a reason I can’t quite grasp, I haven’t skied much since those heady, early days. I also know a couple, now married with grown kids, who met on the slopes in Maine, so I’ve got real-life examples of how cold-weather sports build relationships. And I know outdoorsiness drives Maine’s winter economy. The slopes await the single and the sporty!
I’m sending admiration and a special shoutout to those who brave mind-numbing temperatures to take cold plunges in the sea, or embrace blue fingers to shovel off the pickleball courts on the base and have a game. People tell me extreme cold jump-starts all sorts of physical and mental health benefits. I’m willing to take their word for it.
Exercise, we’ve got that. So what else? January requires much, much more to keep the heart and mind healthy.
Other mammals are migrating or hibernating, but here we are, expected to muster up the energy of spring when the lure of cocooning is calling.
Have you ever had a family pajama day with blankets and movies and snacky supper?
My mom invented “snacky supper” for special occasions like the Winter Olympics or a great Disney special. On those nights when the routine broke, the air crackled with magic. Now snacky supper is all the rage and the social media tide has dubbed it “girl dinner.” By any name, it’s an extraordinary treat. Couple that with all-day pj’s and you’ve got a seasonally perfect family party. You don’t have to engage in the onerous drudge of changing clothes in the morning and again at night, and the oven stays off. Peel an orange, put out some cheese, and save your energy. The next day you need to shower and do a load of laundry, but for 24 hours, you honor the season by sinking into sloth.
You can watch PBS for the shows and for the fantasies Viking Cruises commercials evoke. And there’s so much to binge on all the streaming services you’ve forgotten you pay for. “Shrinking” will make you laugh and cry and laugh again. When it makes you uncomfortable, you’ll be glad it did, and Harrison Ford has an undeniable cool factor.
“Drops of God” is beautiful and there are heroes and villains and it’s not easy to tell which is which. You’ll forget there are subtitles, and you don’t have to like wine to drink up the story.
Ah, wine. Who doesn’t like a glass or two and who doesn’t have a vice or two? Maybe I should remove the judgment and point out that imbibing can be a celebration, not a moral failing. Don’t drink alone; invite friends over and share. Figure out a pairing to fit a theme, have a tasting, experiment, invent a new cocktail. My sister-in-law introduced me to the el diablo (tequila, cassis, ginger beer and lime). It’s rosy, tasty, cheerful, and now a winter tradition that makes me remember mixing them in her kitchen and laughing.
Who likes board games? Give Yahtzee and cribbage a try, even though they require math. Make some noise with Jenga and do it all to music. You don’t need cassette tapes anymore to say “I love you” with a playlist. Every song and every version of every song is at your fingertips.
It doesn’t feel like it, but the days are already getting longer and spring’s around the corner. The light’s blooming and while we wait for it, we’ll be OK. We’ll even thrive because we’ve got a plan, and we’ve got each other.
