“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” -Deepak Chopra
For the past many years, I've pined for sunny places.
I love Minnesota. April through September.
But October through March is another story.
It's not the cold.
It's not the snow.
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| Winter 2011 |
It's the dark.
I have very bad Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which means I sink into a depression every winter.
I use a light box every day.
I take Vitamin D.
I try to exercise and eat healthy foods.
But, I still can't get out of bed on many, many days.
The future seems very bleak.
Hope hides deep away.
It's bad.
So, I dream about living in sunny places.
By February, I'm scouring the Internet looking for jobs and homes in Florida and California.
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| Florida, Winter 2011 |
I've talked about moving for years.
But we never have.
May comes around and I forget about winter and dark and depression.
I love Minnesota again.
I love our neighborhood. I love our house. I love my daughter's school.
Why would we every leave?
Except I know the bad will return.
And I start pining again.
But am I really, truly ready for a change?
Am I prepared to leave my neighborhood, my house, my family and friends, to move across the country?
Am I ready to take the risk?
Today is the last day of June. It's sunny and warm.
Everything is beautiful.
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| Library, June 2012 |
But, winter will come again.
Maybe it's finally time for a change.
Quotes on Change
“By changing nothing, nothing changes.” -Tony Robbins
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” –Elbert Hubbard
"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change." -Jim Rohn
"20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain
I'm not so sure about kids really loving the cold weather and such. Florida seems like a great place to live in especially if you have children.
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I am so sorry to hear about your pain - winter can be so very long in our neck of the woods. Hoping that your next step, whether it be staying here or moving on, is just the right one for you!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kristi. I love Minnesota, but winter is very hard. I need to be a Snow Bird - if I could just figure out a job (and school for Juliana) that could transfer back and forth!
DeleteCan I tell you how much I love this post!! Everything you wrote is exactly how I think! I don't have SAD & I can't imagine how hard that is to go through. We live in Massachusetts & I hate the cold, dark & snow, hate it! I do the same thing, winter comes & I am miserable & beg my husband to move somewhere tropical. I have done this since I was a teenager, I used to beg my parents & get so angry when my car would get stuck in the driveway because of the snow. My husband isn't the best with any change so I am not sure if I will ever get to live somewhere else but maybe if I beg long enough it will work :) Those quotes are great, love them!! Thanks for sharing, great post!
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