nostalgia
Every once in a while, something strikes my heart in just the right way to remind me of the Motherland...
This time around, it was the weather. The frigid, cold-as-hell-if-it-was-frozen-over kind of weather. The kind of weather that makes you want to jump off a tall building, if it wasn't too cold to actually have the will to go outside and do so.
I will never forget going to school when it was dark and windy, and leaving in the afternoon when it was even darker and more windy. On days like that, I wasn't quite sure that the sun ever bothered to rise.
Oh, and there was the snow. Never enough to actually matter, but often welcome as ground cover. New snow painted the landscape with a thin coat of fresh paint. However, it would soon fade, and turn depressing gray. It did hide what was on the ground, though... let me just give you a clue - in the good ol' country, people don't pick up after their dogs. Actually, I'm not quite sure it was always the dogs. But I digress.
And there was the spring. One day, the sun would all of the sudden remember how to shine, and would not stop for hours. It didn't matter that the sunshine made no difference in the weather at all, reflected back by the crappy snow. It mattered to me, for I always thought, as a kid, that the sun waited until my birthday.
Then, in due time, the snow would melt, revealing everything that had accumulated on the ground during the winter. The stench was noticeable for days, but it didn't matter - I knew that the morning was close when I would step outside, and all of the sudden notice that every plant, every tree has exploded in green. Nature knew that it was only given a short time to celebrate, and it took advantage of every second, blissfully dismissing the fact that the winter would come again.
Maybe it's the weather that gets engrained in the psyche of the people... for every Russian knows that endless crap can be followed with even more crap right when you think you're through, but it all doesn't matter, because a day will come to make it all worth waiting for.
This time around, it was the weather. The frigid, cold-as-hell-if-it-was-frozen-over kind of weather. The kind of weather that makes you want to jump off a tall building, if it wasn't too cold to actually have the will to go outside and do so.
I will never forget going to school when it was dark and windy, and leaving in the afternoon when it was even darker and more windy. On days like that, I wasn't quite sure that the sun ever bothered to rise.
Oh, and there was the snow. Never enough to actually matter, but often welcome as ground cover. New snow painted the landscape with a thin coat of fresh paint. However, it would soon fade, and turn depressing gray. It did hide what was on the ground, though... let me just give you a clue - in the good ol' country, people don't pick up after their dogs. Actually, I'm not quite sure it was always the dogs. But I digress.
And there was the spring. One day, the sun would all of the sudden remember how to shine, and would not stop for hours. It didn't matter that the sunshine made no difference in the weather at all, reflected back by the crappy snow. It mattered to me, for I always thought, as a kid, that the sun waited until my birthday.
Then, in due time, the snow would melt, revealing everything that had accumulated on the ground during the winter. The stench was noticeable for days, but it didn't matter - I knew that the morning was close when I would step outside, and all of the sudden notice that every plant, every tree has exploded in green. Nature knew that it was only given a short time to celebrate, and it took advantage of every second, blissfully dismissing the fact that the winter would come again.
Maybe it's the weather that gets engrained in the psyche of the people... for every Russian knows that endless crap can be followed with even more crap right when you think you're through, but it all doesn't matter, because a day will come to make it all worth waiting for.
2 Comments:
At least, someone can find happiness and meaning in this brutal weather. We Viets are from the tropics... I rather the monsoon season than Noreasters ;)
I LOVE SNOW! I miss that white stuff falling from the sky!
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