Oh, the Bright Snow: Fall Veggie Share, Week #7 – 12/7/22

 In CSA Newsletter

The gray of late November and early December can be rough.  Crisp, bright-blue-sky snowy-ground-days can’t be counted on until January and February.

My crew will be the first to tell you that the gray brings me down. It doesn’t make me mean or cranky or anything, just kind of Eeyore like.

This is the trouble with working outside and in the seasons. Honestly, I swear my mood reflects the sky. When it’s hot and the sun is cranking, so am I. When it’s gray and rainy, I’m a bit more subdued. When it’s cold but blue out there, not hard for me to smile at all. But the cold gray, it really pulls me down. It’s like my mood wants to go dormant along with all the trees and perennials.

I’ve tried happy lights and dosing with D, but none of it seems to matter. I’m too much of a farmer I guess. And so, like with all weather, I work to accept what I can’t control. I can’t control the weather in the sky, and many winters have proven that I can’t exactly control my mood’s connection to it.

Two side notes here:
1. Living in the Pacific Northwest would be brutal for me
2. The sun, the sun… its power is vast.

Anyhoo, I bring this all up to provide context around the joy I am experiencing with the current snow falling! I can barely keep my focus on the screen because I just want to look out the window and watch the flakes fall.

Snow is lightness. Not just in its falling weight, but in the actual lifting of tone and color it brings. Each flake makes me feel happy.  As a farmer, and well just an educated human, I fully understand that snow is indeed water, and not light. However its brightness feels like light to me. I can feel it elevate my mood even when the sky is gray.

After a brutally gray Monday, I am soon off to take a midday run. I can’t wait to feel those snowflakes on my cheeks. I am excited to run through bright, floating water – in full surround. Such a deep, deep joy this will be.

May you find small joys that take you through these cold, dark months.

We appreciate you!
Farmer Cassie