What a strange day for me as I sit in my office, bundled up against the cold. I refuse to turn on the furnace for heat since according to the calendar, it is still summer. I love being nude as much as possible, but there are limits. Despite the occasional evidence that I use common sense, I am prone to pushing my limits when it comes to nudity such as being outdoors when the weather is telling my body it needs warmth and protection. For example, this morning I saw an opportunity to get a photo of my flag in the front yard and I went for it. There was no wind and five degrees seemed doable. So, this photo got taken at 6:30 this morning. Now, looking at it, I can see that despite my will power, I was feeling the chill.
Now, I must admit that I am a stubborn man. When my wife noticed my very rare condition of having some clothing on when she returned from a morning work shift, she turned up the thermostat in the house to heat it up to a more tolerable temperature. As a result, I am now comfortably dressed in just my skin, once again. I will put on clothing when we go outside to go for a walk in the local countryside area.
Yesterday morning was just as cold, but for some reason I just didn’t feel it when I had gone to the lake to winterize my daughter’s camper. I stopped en route by the lake to get a few photos and only worried about the ants crawling into my discarded clothing. Why did I feel so much colder this morning? I imagine it had to do with waking up very early [at 4:40 AM] this morning when there was no sunlight for two hours. Then as the morning went on, still no sun appeared from behind thick cloud cover. Dreary skies have a definite physiological and psychological chilling effect on the psyche.
That is the important thing for me to remember. I often slip into thinking that the status quo will continue, that there will be sunshine for weeks to come. The burdening gloominess reminds me that I actually need time away from the sunshine in order to appreciate it better, especially as winter approaches. Here in Canada, that winter is not very far off at all. I will be forced to adjust my expectations. In preparation for the cold of winter, I will be having my fireplace renovated to burn gas instead of wood. It will look like wood burning and it will create that ambience, but without the smoke which is an allergen which has me sneeze, my nose run, and my eyes weep. I stopped burning wood in the fireplace years ago and had resorted to using a small electric heater in my office. Now, my wife suggests that I make myself a mini office by the fireplace for the winter.
Changes. They just keep coming. Change is constant, if sometimes very slow. And when one is open to changes and doesn’t get too stubborn, change is typically what is needed for the psyche. Now, I wonder, why is it that I had been so stubborn as to not take care of the fireplace issue in the past. Why did I resist turning on the central heating? Resistance to change.
How do you navigate needed change? Are you stubborn? Do you resist?