The thing about January is that it is cold. No matter how bundled up against the weather you are, you cannot help but notice the cold. Walking through the glittering white from the house to the car there is no sound save the quiet crunch and squeak of boots against the cold hard snow and the high pitched whine of the gas meter measuring out in cubic feet our attempt to beat back the cold.
It is the stillness and silence of January which makes the cold ever apparent. There is no movement of nature. The birds are gone or huddled in quiet. Even the squirrels only venture out during the warmest few house of the day to raid bird feeders and scraps. Although in January we do get storms of ice and snow which make the branches creak and groan, most days in January even the trees are quiet.
It is not always gray and bleak, on the coldest days the thin January sun emerges and turns the whole world more glittering than any diamond. That is the irony of January, when it is the coldest of the year you must don your summer shades. Perhaps it is the reminder that even in the short cold days the future is bright, and summer is coming. (1.2.14)
