Here it is

It's begun.
The winter rainy, snowy, slushy, slippery-slidy mess of precipitation. The cold. The bone-chilling wind.

My bones hate winter. In nearly every joint, I feel the cold. I woke up yesterday and my big toe was swollen, red, and hurt in a way I have never experienced before. It reminded me of my Dad's arthritic toe, and I kept saying, "no. no. it can't be arthritis." Officially, I've never been diagnosed with arthritis, but I'm fairly certain it is the culprit for my painful joints, my swelling fingers in the winter.

Twice over the holiday, I found myself shaking my hand as if to make the pain go away, and asking, "Is it supposed to rain tomorrow?" Both times, I found out that, indeed, it was to snow. My skill as a human barometer has surely made my husband proud.

I'm blessed this year to have someone who will clear off my windshield when he goes to work at 6am, so that it's much easier for me to get to work on time. To have someone who can shovel the driveway when it gets really bad, someone who loves winter and snow. Someone who will pray for my poor toe, when I'm in too much pain to think of it. A little perspective, you know, can do wonders.