Everyone here has been cold this week. Go ahead and laugh. It's not a winter cold to me (though most Floridians are bundled and have brought their plants inside). It's that transitional cold between winter and summer. Inevitably when a chill like this blows through so do memories. So I felt that writing them down would be a good inaugural 2014 blog post and the first in over 6 months.
Cold like this.
That doesn't freeze your breath but chills your nose brings, back memories.
Memories of soccer games. Dewy grass. That place between your flesh and your shin guards that is the only place to warm your hands. The way the grass sounds when you twist it in your cleats. Little kid giggles. The inevitable kid stuck in a goal net. Parents huddled under blankets with hot cocoa or coffee.
Memories of lacrosse. Early February lacrosse practice where you cram 16 people in your SUV because...well just because. Weather too cold for hands on bare metal. Where rubber balls pelting you feel like someone is shot putting with you as the target. Loud 1980's one hit wonders being sang/screamed across the field. Mile runs with people running up next to you urging you forward past the trees, past the bridge. Yelling until I was hoarse. Celebrating until someone gets hurt.
Memories of horses. With that smell of dust, hay, and general wonder that only they can possess. The fact that every time you dug your hand into their shaggy fur it came away covered in dust and you didn't care. That shaggy fur that was comforting, warm, and home for those few moments they would stand still enough for you to hug them. Velvet faces with snorts of warm breath against your face. Silly outfits. Slobbered on tack. Early morning photography. The movement of another animal bigger and stronger that you that is docile enough to let you hang on and lead them around a field.
Memories of seasons. Flowers poking out of ice. Leaves falling from trees to blanket the yard. Buds on limbs just a few months later. Snapping off faux peaches off of that weird faux peach tree and trying to skip them down the driveway. Dusty roads. Those same roads slushy from spring rains.
Most of these things existed outside of this cold but the cold made some of these memories stick. Made them blessings. Made them aches that remind me a lot of these things I won't experience them again like I experienced them those times. Most of them are nostalgia from when I was a kid. From Missouri. They're things I'm thankful for.
But now...time for new memories in this cold. Of mirror images of sunsets on lakes. Strings of white lights hanging from the trees. Sandhill Cranes bracing themselves against the wind. Citrus trees wrapped in plastic. Finding new things to be thankful for.
