Ode to January

           
              January.......a month of golden light and blue shadows. The crisp cold is like a numbing kiss                on my cheeks and nose, leaving a sensation of warmth where there really is none.
             
             The pure white snow, sparkling like a lovely gown, clothes the fields. The charitable skies                   gift the bare brown landscape with fairy white flakes, consecrating it with beauty.
             
             January.....you are so kind.
           
             Your soft white curves cover the ugly bareness of a snowless landscape, like a fairy                              godmother dressing a drab young girl in an exquisite ball gown. You shine forth radiantly,                  filling my world with soft pink sunsets and navy blue night skies. You hold every mystery of              beauty in your icy clutches and captivate me with it's presence.
           
             And yet people think you cruel! People condemn you for your freezing exterior, not                              understanding that it is a part of who you are....that you must have your bitter side like all the               rest of us.
           
              Many people hate the cold and curse the glittering snow.....but you shine on despite them all.               You show the world that cold does not always mean cruel, and that seasons and people who                  find it difficult to be loved are not any less worth loving for that.
           
               Dear, lovely January, you are my month of beginnings, my month of hope. And your beauty                has shown me the love that God bestows even on the frostiest and most misunderstood of                    his children. Because cold is it's own kind of beauty.

               After all, only the bitter weather has the ability to make us feel so sharply alive.