Habits are hard to build. My strongest habit, apart from brushing my teeth and showering, is that I write in my journal every night. Not an emotion journal, nut just a day by day deal. I’ve written every day for four and a half years.
I still haven’t been able to turn blogging into a habit. Maybe it’s because I already journal and two writing habits like that is too much. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t tried hard enough. Either way, because it’s not a habit when I came to my mother’s house for the holidays my grand plans of writing everyday quickly vanished. Cutting down Christmas trees, Christmas itself, and a visit to family in Michigan have filled my life in the past ten days or so since I left my home in Boston. I’ve gotten some good reading done, developed a bunch of new ideas, but as you can see they all still remain in my mind, as pictures on my phone, or written on tiny scraps of paper.
The snowman above is one that I made spur of the moment. I was visiting my 91 year old grandparents and their home was too hot for me after an hour and a half so I had to go outside for a breather. I decided, while I was out there, to make my first snowman of the season. My first snowman in quite a while actually. With no gloves and no coat, I pranced between their small slot of yard and the large area across their driveway that had gathered snow.
I placed the snowman in front of their door, a wintery sentinel now that much of the family has returned to our separate parts of the country. My older sister helped me add eyes, nose, and the rest, and we waved at one of the other seniors going into their apartment next door. While not the most impressive snowman, it was what I could manage and I hope it stands there for at least a few more days before some misfortune befalls it.