Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom (And Whimsy)
Posted on February 18, 2026 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet
Winter Wonderland
It’s shaping up as an old-fashioned winter.
Perfection (per-fec-tion) Noun. The condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.
In recent years, winter has been all over the weather map. Three years ago, we had some historic snowfalls. The last few winters have been quite benign with very minimal accumulations of snow. There are two metrics that indicate to me the type of winter we’re having: storm days at school and the number of times we need the parking lot plowed at our apartment complex.
In the past three months, we’ve had seven storm days at school and at least 10 days when we can hear the beep beep of the front-end loader coming to clean our parking lot.
A lot of snow has accumulated lately and barring a big mid-winter thaw, snowmobilers, cross country skiers and snowshoers will have one of their best winters in recent memory.
Last Saturday was one of those winter days that can only be described as perfection. The air was cold and crisp but not frigid. There was no wind to create bone-numbing windchill, the sun was shining and there was nothing but blue skies. Pristine winter conditions.
I went out for an early morning walk. The sidewalks were quite icy but otherwise everything else about the walk was wonderful. These are the kind of days one feels truly alive and grateful.
I went with a friend to have lunch with a family member at an assisted living facility. We were sharing childhood memories including bowling at “the alleys” and skating parties at the old Memorial Rink on the campus of St. Francis Xavier University. In our youth, we loved going to skating parties hoping to get to skate with a member of the fairer sex. I started to sing the first few bars of the Ferlin Husky classic “Wings of a Dove”, one of the songs played endlessly at these skates. The others at my table joined in.
At an adjacent table, an elderly lady who was sitting by herself. When we finished verse one, we could hear her chiming in with verse two. She had a lovely voice. I asked her if she skated in her youth. She spent her youth in a small seaside community on the Eastern Shore of Guysborough County.
“There was a river not far from the school which froze over during the winter. While the boys cleared the snow off the ice, the girls went down to the shore to gather driftwood for a fire that glowed brightly when darkness descended. We had to be home at 10:00 p.m. but none of us had watches. There was a house near the river and at 10:00 p.m. sharp, a woman placed a lamp at her window indicating that time was up. Reluctantly, we trudged home.”
Oh, those halcyon days.
Later that same day, a friend joined me for a drive in the country. Simply put, it was a winter wonderland. The snow glittered like diamonds. We drove up to Beaver Mountain Park, a popular place to go snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. A lone eagle soared effortlessly overhead. There were cars parked on the road leading up to the parking lot, so we knew that the park was hopping. We hoped to be able to find a spot to park but that was folly. It looked like the 401 at rush hour. Only because of the kindness of a man who was able to move his truck enough that we could turn around, we would have had to back out of the parking lot and part way down a steep hill.
I told my friend about the days decades ago when I went cross-country skiing with my mother-in- law. She was raised in Northern New Brunswick, and she grew up on skies. We had some legendary treks through the park, often lasting 4-5 hours. I could scarcely keep up with her. There was a shelter deep in the forest where we stopped for soup from a thermos and hot chocolate.
A leisurely drive home through Back Road Brierly Brook ended a near perfect day.
We are fortunate in our part of the world to have four seasons.
Not everyone loves the winter but occasionally, we are reminded that it can be special if we embrace it… like we did when we were young, innocent, unhurried, and untroubled.
Have a great weekend.
