Baby, It's Cold Outside

When we moved to New Mexico, I thought I was moving to a desert full of scorpions and snakes and roadrunners under a sky perpetually screaming with savage dry heat. I thought I was moving to heaven.

Oh. It's a high desert, is it?

SNOW?????

Yes, snow, virtually every winter, and sometimes it stays for a few days. It any event, it does get cold, with that kind of thin, penetrating cold that cuts through clothing with fiendish glee.

Clothing...hmmm. My legs were burned several years ago. I usually wear shorts. (Didn't this bozo think more than fifteen seconds ahead in his entire life?)

Well, okay. We're not moving any time soon, and my legs - and the rest of me - have had to make our peace with the cold.

The funny thing is, it wasn't that hard. I realized that if I go outside with an attitude of "it's cold, I'm going to suffer!" I hunch up, draw my elbows in, and feel cold. It's miserable.

When I just step out the door with my arms loose, and focus on the brilliant stars in the night sky (or the views of the mountains by day), and make and effort to breathe deeply, drawing the crisp air fully into my lungs...I don't feel the cold.

As much.

And I enjoy the process a whole lot more.