It’s been cold here lately. Like, I can’t even take my poor dog running with me because her paws can’t handle it, and trying to put booties on her doesn’t work because she just tries to bite them off and won’t go anywhere. So, I’ll take her out to go potty in the morning, and then drop her off back inside the house while I go run. According to The Bearded One, she whines and watches out the window the whole time I’m out running. It’s very sad. We got some stuff called “Musher’s Secret” at the end of last winter, which is a blend of wax and oils that’s supposed to help protect paws, and it does help a little. Apparently I was putting a little too much on, though, because then when she would go in the kitchen (hard-surface floor) to her water bowl she would slip, which would freak her out, and more than once this week she whined at us from the kitchen rug because she was scared to walk back to the living room after she slipped. It was pathetic.
So, it’s been cold. One of my least favorite weather conditions. The only thing worse than extreme cold, in my opinion, (other than, like, catastrophic weather events) is cold + wind, which we’ve also had our share of recently. But the cold isn’t always all bad. We had two days this week with brilliant sun dogs. If you’re not familiar, britannica.com says:
“Sun dogs occur when the sun or moon shines through a thin cirrus cloud composed of hexagonal ice crystals falling with their principal axes vertical…”
The sun dogs first came out this week on Wednesday, when the high temperature barely hit double digits. I took this picture right after I finished my run that day, not long after the sunrise:
I think they look like little rainbow sidekicks to the sun. Like, they’re the sun’s backup singers, but they only come out to perform when it’s really cold. The following day, on my 45-ish minute commute home from work I pulled over no fewer than five times, trying to get good pictures of them because they looked just as bright (or brighter) than the day before. I ended up getting the best one when I was almost home, just before sunset (see the main photo at the top of this page). In that one, the sun dogs almost blend in with the gathering colors of the sunset, but I still think they’re lovely.
Sun dogs aren’t the most exciting weather phenomenon, but they do make the bitterly cold days a little prettier, at least. And, in my opinion, they’re best appreciated while you’re outside in the cold. But maybe that’s just me. Either way, at the risk of sounding toxically positive, I think it’s important to look for the good when we can. Silver linings (or rainbow sidekicks) can often be found in miserable situations, and they can help make the bad a little more tolerable. But not always. My poor dog has no use for pretty weather phenomena when she can’t even stand to be outside (normally her favorite place to be) longer than it takes to pee because it’s so dang cold. And those times in life, when it’s rough, or even when you’re just in a time of transition or challenge, are the times you might need to seek help, as my dog did in the form of a sad, defeated look the other day when she tried to pick all of her paws up off the cold ground at once and almost fell over into the snowy ditch (I picked her up and carried her partway back inside after that).
That’s one thing I’m anticipating needing to do during my 40th year on Earth as I challenge myself and work to be better–asking for help more. I’m usually pretty good at remembering to look for the beauty, but I’m writing this to remind myself to try to look up if I get frustrated and feel like a cold spell will never end. I might need to be carried partway, but I know it’ll get better.
growingmoxie.com 