At-Home Massage In Wintertime: Appreciating The Bitter Cold, Finally

While 2015 may not be the year of (Disney) “Frozen,” it’s certainly shaping up to be a freezing winter, nevertheless.  We have phrases like “bitterly cold.”  “Harsh”, “bleak”, “biting”, and “severe” are also common descriptive terms for wintertime.  And this year, with temperatures today at under ten degrees in Hudson County, we are definitely on track to having another “severe and bleak” winter.

No one appreciates the cold.  Well, practically no one.  Those Polar Bear Club members who bathe in the January waters likely just adore  the cold, each of them having enough appreciation for one hundred of us “usual” winter-hating people.   Most of us shiver in the cold, and most of the time, the winter is a cold season.  It all makes too much sense.

That’s also why people don’t move from New Jersey to Maine or Canada.  Notice the trend in friends and family who have relocated?  It’s always to warmer spots.  The reasoning and feelings behind this aren’t even worth discussing, they’re so obvious!  But lately, I’ve begun to realize that the winter does hold some amazing potential.

Right now, as I look out my window, it is literally snowing.  It’s 8:30, Friday morning, January 9thbof the new year, 2015.  Last night, we did a couple’s massage session in Bayonne.  The apartment was probably like 85 degrees, but we didn’t care, because outside, it was only 8 degrees yesterday.

Readers may be wondering why the emphasis on cold weather as of late. (The last article was also about the winter!)   Honestly, it began with friends and family back for the holidays.  This year, unlike others, I quietly questioned the wisdom of moving so far away from everyone who cares about them.  And I began to realize that the frigid cold, the bane of the Northeast, has its many charms.

Those same people from last night used a delivery service to get their groceries from Stop N Shop.  And why not?  Why even entertain leaving home when it’s single-digits-cold outside?   What is even the point?  Having an at-home massage on a day as cold as it was yesterday really makes people love the cold.

Looking out the window as I worked on my client onto the dark, inky night, the trees were motionless; the wind was almost still.  And it was still cold.  At least by our standards.  I’m sure that people in Canada and the Midwest know a thing or two about what a really cold day is like.  I mean, our cars started.  There were no blackouts.  No supermarkets caved in from ice on the roof!  In reality, our winters are mild compared to what some North Americans (and denizens of other continents) experience every year like clockwork.

The colder it gets, the more clients seem to appreciate being indoors, at home.  Some work from home and never have to venture out into the cold.  Others are not so fortunate, and after braving the icy winds both at 7 AM and 5 PM, they’re just not in the mood to do it all again, in the name of “relaxation”, no less.  Most seem to think going out into “this” is as far from relaxation as they can get.

It isn’t the winter we New Jerseyans and NYCers despise: It’s being out IN the winter weather.  I’ll admit, walking to and from the Mall on a really brisk day can be invigorating – but then I’m only outside for a minute each time.  I like feeling cold for a minute or two and then basking in the warm, red radiance of the heaters at the entrance to the stores I set out to shop at.  We don’t hate winter; we want to control it, to experience it on our terms.

I’ve often wondered why people settled in such arid lands.  Maybe they arrived in Summertime, and loved it so much, by the time winter arrived, they were hooked on the place?  I really don’t know.  But I have begun to appreciate the extremes of weather here.  Seriously, 70 degrees and sunny every day of the year must be monotony, no?  The cycle of the yearly seasons are great.  The colder months are best for chilling at home, and having everything ordered in, from Couples Massage to groceries and restaurant meals.

The snow is already slowing down.  While I hate to think of the mess on the roads later, and how getting around will certainly be that much more difficult, I also wistfully hoped that the snowflakes would keep on coming, heavier and heavier, until we were blanketed in near-blizzard conditions.  Of course, like everyone in this area, I also wished for all that snow to melt by tomorrow.  And like most people I meet in my daily life in this part of the world, we like our snow in drifts, falling like clumps, but from behind a thick pane of glass, sipping hot cocoa and enjoying the ease of wearing shorts and a sports top in five degree weather.   : )

©Copyright 2015 H Miller