A repost. As originally published on EV Mail News for the week of August 22-28, 2011.
I have lived all my life in Tacloban for some 30 years before we left for the U.S. Can you imagine how it feels like to experience winter for the very first time? There's absolutely nothing that can prepare you for it. Reading about it is one thing, looking at it from the movies and through Christmas cards is another, but to be actually in it is something different all together.
Yes, snow is postcard-pretty and winter is beautiful especially during the holidays and at Christmas time. It's synonymous with Christmas trees, gifts, red ribbons and silver bows, caroling, hot chocolate with marshmallows, cozy evenings, warm blankets, and a fireplace (if you have one). It's always fun to play in the snow but it's most enjoyable for kids rather than for the "oldies."
In Chicago, nicknamed as the Windy City, a mere 30 degrees Fahrenheit on winter (that's negative 1.1 degrees Celsius) may translate, with the brutal wind chill, to a negative 10 degrees Fahrenheit (or, -23.3 degrees Celsius)! The only way I can describe it for you who live in the tropics is this way --it's like eating ice candy inside a huge freezer with an electric fan turned on high and you're soaking wet to the bones. There.
For me, part of the excitement of winter is the anticipation of the coming springtime. It's one of the attractive qualities of Chicago and the Illinois state as a whole. Despite its infamous weather, we do get to experience all the four seasons God has created so wonderfully. Yeah sure, some Chicagoans may say, and they take this fact for "granted" since according to them we don't get any proper spring in the first place. Whatever they mean by "proper" I really don't know. All I know is that once the snow and ice of winter start to melt, the green grass and the foliage on trees begin to appear and the tulips are abloom, that's spring for me!
Tulips always mean springtime. They are very lovely and delicate flowers. When it's too cold they wilt and when it's too hot they get scorched. It's when the temperature is just right that they bloom perfectly.
Tulips always mean springtime. They are very lovely and delicate flowers. When it's too cold they wilt and when it's too hot they get scorched. It's when the temperature is just right that they bloom perfectly.
After springtime comes summer of course. It's still my top favorite season. Some habits are just hard to break. Summer still brings back great memories of my childhood and my life back in the Philippines. It's the season for picnics and barbecues, of beaches and sunburns, of clear blue skies and long evening walks, of ice cream and a bowl of super special halo-halo!
This is the season to be out of the house and enjoy the warmth for as long as we can because it is short-lived in this part of the world. One of my favorite pastimes is to hang-out in the parks where there are so many activities going on all summer. There are free concerts, free movies, and there is the free grass, sky, air and benches to lounge around on a lazy, breezy afternoons and even on evenings. I wish summers are endless in Chicago but the downside of that is I wouldn't be able to experience the wonders of autumn. Fall, as this season is also called, is my next favorite.
This is the season to be out of the house and enjoy the warmth for as long as we can because it is short-lived in this part of the world. One of my favorite pastimes is to hang-out in the parks where there are so many activities going on all summer. There are free concerts, free movies, and there is the free grass, sky, air and benches to lounge around on a lazy, breezy afternoons and even on evenings. I wish summers are endless in Chicago but the downside of that is I wouldn't be able to experience the wonders of autumn. Fall, as this season is also called, is my next favorite.
Fall is when God brings out His palette of tremendous, vibrant colors of dark reds, maroons, pinks, browns, golden yellows, bright oranges, dark greens, and different hues of burgundy, mahogany, magenta, and gold. Autumn is another magnificent thing I've never seen before in my life until we came to Chicago. And also, there is absolutely nothing that can prepare you for this glorious season.
Fall is synonymous with pumpkins and gourds, squash and sweet potatoes, berries, apples, pears, pomegranates, allspice, vanilla and cinnamon. All the great and rich foods fresh from the farm become available in autumn maybe in preparation for Thanksgiving, an all-American holiday celebrated every fourth Thursday of November.
Although Thanksgiving is an American tradition going back to the time of the Pilgrims who celebrated it for the first time with some American Indians thanking God for helping them survive a most brutal winter and yet it is a celebration everybody can relate with and which they can do it in their own way. There's simply too much to be grateful for but we offer too little thanks to the One to whom it's due. Thanksgiving is a tradition our own family has adopted, as well as for the millions of multicultural families in America.
The next big celebration after Thanksgiving is Christmas, one of my favorite holidays next to Resurrection day or Easter. Needless to say, winter has taken its full turn by this time of year. Christmas takes on a life of its own because of winter. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are doubly special when there is fresh snow outside.
This wonderful holiday, with the pristine white snow blanketing almost everything, makes winter bearable. Although December 25 is not the actual birth date of Jesus Christ, I'm pretty sure He wouldn't mind for us celebrating it with some flair and a little pomp. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords after all.
This wonderful holiday, with the pristine white snow blanketing almost everything, makes winter bearable. Although December 25 is not the actual birth date of Jesus Christ, I'm pretty sure He wouldn't mind for us celebrating it with some flair and a little pomp. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords after all.
"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." -Psalms 51:7
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." -Isaiah 1:18
You know how we understand some things but when "re-learned" in a different perspective it brings out a much deeper, more valuable meaning? I've only fully comprehended these previous verses from the Bible when I saw snow with my very own eyes. That's how white, clean and pure I look in the eyes of God, not because of who I am or what I have done but only because of the cleansing blood of Jesus completely covering me.
You know how we understand some things but when "re-learned" in a different perspective it brings out a much deeper, more valuable meaning? I've only fully comprehended these previous verses from the Bible when I saw snow with my very own eyes. That's how white, clean and pure I look in the eyes of God, not because of who I am or what I have done but only because of the cleansing blood of Jesus completely covering me.
Winter, spring, summer or fall, as the song goes, but I will put my personal spin on it… all we have to do is call on God. He is our friend for every season. And up to now, I still love the four beautiful seasons of Chicago and I don't think I will ever get tired of it.
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