cold?

outside?

Photo by Pavel Lozovikov on Unsplash

the break in the cold on these winter days
provides us with 
the chance to go outside for a spell.
it’s been a while as one cannot long tolerate
temperatures that freeze things,
fingers and noses as well as hearts, 
on first contact. 

winter can be a time of such beauty,
but we often miss it, 
thinking that…
this winter’s day is too harsh to go outside.
thinking that…
why risk needless risks
on foot, in car, on ice, in snow,
of others or my own naive fearlessness.
thinking that…
i prefer to be where i can make my world
what i think it needs to be for my happiness to be. 

but going outside is where life happens.
and it cannot always be sunny-warm,
and couch-comfy,
with a mug of hot coffee or even iced tea when craved—
whether the skies are a clear blue 
or overcast grey,
whether the air a hugging warm 
or biting cold,
whether there is someone out there to love
or be loved by,
or to hate—
where life happens.

we have to go outside
if we want to live, 
and we want to live, 
don’t we?

with each other?

there can be a break in the cold today. 
just like every day.
the choice of it offers a chance: 

at possibility.

what is possible for us today?
dare we brave a cold so cold 
it might make our hearts
brittle?
i pray we will.
because then, only then, does it become easy
to break open hearts made frozen,
no matter how they got that way. 

i pray you do brave the cold outside,
it can be beautiful there too.
risk the first contact that can shatter
a sheltered belief, a “too-cold” heart.
afterall, 
your heart, and your belief,
may have frozen solid
from staying exactly where you are.

go outside and into every human-made winter;
there are others out there like you, 
and not like you,
but each, longing.
don’t wait for a break that may never come 
from the cold itself.
go outside,
risk living the life
that is approaching you,

just outside the door of your warmth.

---

Live, Laugh, and Love,

~ k

Always and Ubuntu.

🙏🏼