The Immortality of Winter

This winter is breaking me. The sinus infection will not die, and neither will this immortal winter weather. 

After two snow days in a row at the end of last week, and a cancelled school event on Saturday, I was raring to get the girls to school on Monday. And for once, we did have school, although looking out the window, I felt trepidation. The snow was really coming down…. onto a thick sheet of existing ice. 

As I was steering the Subie down the hill on our dirt road, I started sliding… and did not stop until we reached a flat spot. Yikes. I stopped, took a deep breath, and forged on. But then the trash truck came and ran me off the road. Right into a ditch.

By the time I got my car pulled out, I realized we weren’t going to school again.

Work is going to hell from all the enforced time off; my sinuses can go fuck themselves; I have a lousy bruise on my head where I smashed my skull into the ice the other day when my Sorrels slipped out from under me.

But it is quite beautiful out, no?

Last weekend, when my daughters were overnighting with my mom, I took the opportunity for a leisurely walk into “town” for a storytelling event at the Grange. Along the way, I scouted for photo opps one can only get in cold, desolate places like Vermont, such as icicles dropping off rusty barbed wire fences against a backdrop of fir trees. 

It was deathly quiet out there, as only winter can be. Maybe one car passed me for the entire 2.5-mile walk. The encrusted snow in the fields and the icicles weighing down the trees imposed an ominous-slash-peaceful silence on the landscape. No bird songs. No frog tunes. No cow moos. Nothing.

Two years ago my wonderful husband gifted me snowshoes to placate me through the New England winters. Now I am realizing I will also need cleats. The key to winter in Vermont is gear. 

Case in point: yesterday another gift from my husband arrived — these cozy shearling slippers handmade to order by the local company Shephard’s Flock. They are cheering me up immensely this morning as we have yet another 2-hour delay due to snow!

Spring, wherefore art thou?

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What I’m eating:

Homemade Valentine’s chocolate! All it takes is some coconut oil, some cacao powder, a chocolate mold, and a dream — and a willingness to spend hours making what you could buy relatively cheaply but with not nearly the love. 

What I’m listening to:

Just started listening to the podcast Code Switch starting with the 2-part episode Black Parents Take Control, Teachers Strike Back. Super interesting deep-dive into a period of racial strife in the Brooklyn school systems in the ’60s.

What I’m watching:

Still loving on Joaquin Phoenix. His Oscars acceptance speech was on point. Love a person who can blend passion and compassion and be totally weird about it. Jon and I watched Joker last weekend. I loved it, and it was nothing like I expected. I hear a lot of people hated this movie. I understand why. No one wants to face the way our society sidelines the mentally ill. 

What I’m reading:

After 2,000 Years, These Seeds Have Finally Sprouted: Six date seeds as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls are now flourishing as trees on a kibbutz

I just finished the book Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver and I loved it with all my heart!

What I’m working on:

A while back I wrote a long-form piece for the global executive search and leadership consulting firm Spencer Stuart called The CPG CEO of The Future: Insight into the Transformation of CPG Leadership, which was based on interviews with leaders of 15 big consumer goods products companies from Coca-Cola to Unilever to L’Oréal.

To support that piece, I also wrote three short blog posts:

• 10 Characteristics That Will Define Successful Future CPG Leaders

• The Innovation Game: The Consumer Goods Industry in the Age of Digital

• Safe Is Now Risky: What Consumer Products Companies Can Learn from Startups

This is a great example of how content marketing works! Keeping materials fresh and in front of potential customers online.