Things I love about January:

I love leaving work in January. Unlike December it is still light out when I leave and I can watch the sun dip behind the hills. It makes me feel warm, somehow, knowing that it is below zero here but somewhere in this universe it is brilliant orange and very, very, very warm.

I love wearing slippers. I'd rather be barefoot, but it's not an option right now. So I close our apartment door behind me, slip out of felted wool shoes and into faux leather slippers from Thailand.

I love that January means that there's only a month in-between us and March. March is miserable, but after March is April and April is beautiful.

I love driving to work in the morning in cold, cold January, when the ice still clings to trees like droopy old man mustaches.

I love that summer is for music and open windows and writing in my head while I drive, but January is for NPR and yelling at the radio and intermittently blowing on my fingers to keep warm.

I love that in January I can wear scarves. Cashmere ones. Wool ones. Cotton ones. And a funny sort of blend one. I love scarves.

I love that in January I don't feel badly about reading or not, or writing or not, or thinking or not. Because soon January will be over and so will winter. And so too, the winter of my soul.

I love January because it's not always January.