Write Your Way Through Winter

"According to health experts, the extreme cold can cause major health problems, such as pneumonia and hypothermia, in senior citizens.

"People over the age of 65 are more likely to develop these complications than any other age group because their bodies tend to have more difficulties regulating temperature."

Are you tired of reading and hearing facts like this (quoted from a typical on-line weather feature) or the usual dismal weather forecasts? Is winter getting to you, despite your comfortable indoor environment? What are your coping methods? Do you overeat, bury yourself in soap operas, exercise, sleep most of the time, or what?

In case you can't or don't want to escape to a warmer climate, I'd like to suggest writing as a way to beat the winter blues. Your basic life writing may fill the bill, but how about emphasizing some warm memories? Do you remember a wonderful summer day at the beach (local or foreign)? Do you remember a walk along the lake on a beautiful, warm, sunny day?

Thank about the good days from summers of the recent and/or distant past, from childhood or adulthood. What did you do? How did you feel? Writing has to be one of the best ways of coping with inclement weather, and it won't make you fat.

While it may be hard to do, why not follow Italian author, playwiright, and poet Pietro Aretino's advice: "Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius." For more quotations about winter, go to

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art37089.asp

For a humorous look at winter weather, go to

http://joyofsix.typepad.com/joyofsix/2008/01/chicago-weather.html

Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne