A difference a degree makes.

For those who are from the state of eternal sunshine, the bleakness of the recent days affects them greatly. The leaden skies hide the normal shine of yellow rays and with that coverage, the warmth that allows the human world here to walk around. With just a few degrees lower and a slight chilly wind, my neighbors feel as if the world has come once again into the ice age.

Yet here I am in, sitting at the local Starbucks, sipping a Strawberries and Crème frappuccino. Granted I am shivering a bit from the iciness sweetness of the strawberries, yet I am not lamenting the fact of the temperature change that has grasped the world in which I now live. My co-workers cringe when I recall my memories of my times in the Midwest, talking of snow covered streets, ice covered trees, and chilly winds. They look in horror at me when I calmly share of my previous winters of life spent locked indoors as the temperatures outside reach to single digits, and many times, a little line appears before those numbers. They shake their heads in wonderment how I could have survived living in such a state of coldness and sing praises that they have not had to live where cold is the norm.

As I listen to the complaints of how cold it is from those who truly do not know what a winter should be, I chuckle softly to myself as memories of snow covered cars, ice covered trees dance in my head. I smile gently to myself as I listen to them adamantly state that they will die if they ever lived in a state where snow is common as the sun, yet memories of snow angels, snow ball fights, and warm nights snuggled indoors watching a new movie slide before my eyes. Just to throw in a few gasps of horror, I will spin a tale of wild blizzards and icy nights, yet deep down inside I know that I do not miss the very things that my co-workers fear. I do not mind the winter I am experiencing at the moment. It is nice yet what I miss is the beauty of the sunlight dancing off the whitened land, sending its glittering beauty to every eye who stops to breathe in the brisk newness of the day. Now that I miss.