It’s been a colder than normal winter here, and everyone’s griping something awful. Walking down the street yesterday multiple people I ran across greeted me with an exaggerated shiver, all expressing the same sentiment, “I’m so over this cold weather”. It was about 58°F at the time.

You might say we’re just cold weather wimps here in the sunshine state, but the visitors from the north are complaining just as loudly. I had clients I was photographing from New York who could barely sit through their outdoor session they were so miserable. I swear that 50° in the deep south feels much colder than 50° in the Midwest.

What trips everyone up are the expectations of what things should be like. We all seem to enjoy the thrill of a little deviation from the norm, but have it be too extreme, or go on for too long, and we quickly turn crabby. I wonder if I might embrace the chilly air with less discomfort today if I simply accept it without judgment--not compare it to the norm, desire it to change, or express disappointment in its deviant behavior.

I wonder if we’d feel less discomfort with one another as human beings if we practiced that same philosophy.



~Cynthia