You know the days I mean. One glorious afternoon appears out of nowhere. Blue sky. Sunshine. Birds doing that hopeful chirping thing like they’re auditioning for a Disney movie. You step outside and think, This is it. We made it. I survived winter. I am a resilient woodland creature.
And then the very next morning you wake up to gray. Snow. Slush. The emotional equivalent of someone unplugging your happiness and shrugging.
I am caught, once again, between hope and deep suspicion.
I want to believe. I truly do. I want to put the winter boots away, stop wearing seventeen layers, and feel my face without pain. But experience has taught me that spring likes to flirt. It shows up just long enough to get your guard down, then vanishes while winter cackles from behind a snowbank.
Blueberry, my Papillon and resident diva, is firmly on my side in this debate.
Snow? Absolutely not.
She’ll step three dainty steps out the front door, look at the ground, look back at me, and give me that expression that says, Mother. We have discussed this. I did not sign up for this nonsense.
Then she turns around and goes back inside like a tiny, judgmental snowflake model who refuses to ruin her coat.
Honestly? I respect it.
Our other dogs are far more reasonable about the whole thing. They’ll go out. They’ll do what needs doing. They’ll accept winter as a fact of life. Blueberry, however, believes winter is a personal attack and should be reported to management.
This weird seasonal limbo does something strange to the creative brain too. I find myself wanting to write about fresh starts, light, magic, and cozy moments… while staring out the window at gray skies and wondering if I’ll ever see green again. It’s very “cozy mystery author trapped in an emotional snow globe.”
But there’s something oddly comforting about this stretch as well.
It’s the pause before the exhale. The almost. The moment when you know you’re close, even if the weather is being deeply uncooperative. The days are longer now, even when they’re gloomy. The snow doesn’t feel quite as powerful as it did a month ago. Winter is tired. I can sense it.
And on the good side — because there is always a good side — we are almost through it.
Almost.
That word is doing a lot of heavy lifting right now, but I’ll take it.
Almost through the cold. Almost through the snow. Almost at the point where Blueberry will prance outside like she personally summoned the sun and take full credit for spring’s arrival.
Until then, I’ll keep writing cozy mysteries, drinking far too much tea, watching for those sneaky beautiful days, and reminding myself that this awkward in-between is part of the story too.
Even winter has chapters. And this one? It’s winding down.
Thank goodness.
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