Someone told me lately that Jan. 16 is the most depressing day of the year. Hmmm. Not if it’s your birthday or the day you won the lottery (which, remember won’t happen) or a million other possibilities…..but I understand where the sentiment is coming from.
Although why pick on the 16th, how about the 19th or the 22nd? Which is today by the way. Heavy sigh.
Or how about November or February? They can be brutal too.
However, having said all that, yes this is a tough time of year.
The holiday hangover so to speak.
The holidays are over, and the next one isn’t until Good Friday, April 6 by the way, although remember Christy Clark promised us Heritage Day in February, 2013 (which might as well be February 2031 at this point).
Sure Christmas and New Year’s (although the latter is overrated to be sure) are over and the thrill has subsided – and indeed the Visa bills are starting to come in just as the memories start to fade about whether or not your loved one actually liked that $75 sweater or not that you haven’t yet paid for (sometimes credit cards suck).
And speaking of whether or not, how about the weather?
And when it’s minus 30 outside, with the windchill, it’s difficult to get too excited about the winter wonderland of activities available to us in the frozen north.
Just when us procrastinators were thinking about actually going jogging to fulfill our goal of getting fit in 2012, it turns despicably cold. And then there’s the ice and snow to worry about and that dog down the street and my sore Achilles tendon (wherever that is) and all that good stuff on TV….
Of course some of us go south at the first sign of a snowflake and lying on the beach in Mexico or Hawaii would definitely make Jan. 16 a little easier to take.
However, although I’ve gone south in the past it ain’t happening this year – so to those who have already gone or are enjoying the fact that they will one day soon which sure helps get through days like this past week, well, I wish you all the best from the bottom of my freezing but still beating heart. At least I’m working up to feeling that way, it ain’t quite there yet.
But maybe I need an attitude adjustment.
Maybe we all need an attitude adjustment.
I often tell my kids, just ask ‘em, that they shouldn’t whine about doing homework or having to get up to go to school on a cold winter’s day as it’s part of life and it’s a privilege to get an education and they will likely look back on this as one of the best times in their life so they should enjoy it. Or I may give them the abridged version: “Suck it up princess.”
And after they roll their eyes and wonder where I get this stuff from (I think it’s genetically implanted in your brain after you hit 50 cause I think it’s the same stuff my parents said to me a few decades ago, if you must know), they go about their business, which may or may not include homework.
But the truth is we all can get whiny at this time of year and frankly it’s not that attractive.
So let’s rally here people and accentuate the positive. The cold snap is over and for all we know that might pass for winter this year and it’s been pretty slack so far, hardly worthy of complaining for us tough Canadians.
We needed the snow, for both skiing and drinking water purposes and if you weren’t shovelling what kind of exercise were you going to get anyway?
And keep in mind that Jan. 16 is over and that the days are getting longer and the Winter Carnival and the Winter Games are just around the corner and (fill in the blank of something to look forward to) and I’m going to start jogging any day now and…….
– Glenn Mitchell is the managing editor at The Morning Star. glenn@vernonmorningstar.com
