Surviving The Winter: A New Perspective
Surviving The Winter
It seems like the winters in Germany get longer and greyer. When I was living in the United States, I took for granted the very many sunny days I enjoyed throughout the year. I felt more energetic, my skin looked better and moister. I felt good all throughout the year. I’m no scientist at all but I understand that Vitamin D is given through sunshine, and it can give you the energy you need given that you are eating correctly and even combat against depression. The Germans say that Americans are generally friendlier than other Europeans of which I disagree but, if it is true, it could be because we get more sunlight in most places back home throughout the year. When you couple that with the lack of sun throughout the winter in Germany with the hellish cold, snow, and ice on the roads that result from light rain that freezes over night, it really is best that you stay home. If you stay home, which you should during most days in the winter here, you might start seeing the walls close in on you. What are you left with then? You have to come up with creative ways to last through the German winters.
ABOVE: Me taking advantage of one of the more sunnier days this winter in the confines of my home.
Wandering Way of the Wanderer
I decided no matter the weather I needed to get out of my comfort zone as to evade the seasonal depression that the grey winters bring. By doing so I started to observe and conclude a few things. Not just about Germany but about life, in particularly two things.
ABOVE: Self portrait somewhere in the city in some random antique store on a cold, grey, and drury day.
BELOW: A young woman turns to look at a window.
First, nothing lasts forever. You have heard this before I’m sure, but the weather literally plays the drama of birth and death, maybe its death and birth. If no season comes before the other, instead rather they continually move in a circle, could it also be possible that death and birth are also likewise intertwined? We know what we remember, but we don’t remember everything. Staying on this point, I’d add that the nature of things is a circular in terms of lifespan. Again, we assume that it’s over and it ends abruptly but the world plays this out for us. The circle of life is manifested on Earth. I think about it myself as I walk around observing things in the winter. How could it not be? If the earth was not round and it didn’t move in a circle how could the seasons manifested?
ABOVE: A child’s mitten lost and found in the subway.
BELOW: View of the sun visible from my bus stop.
Secondly, the decomposition of things can be just as great as when they are being composed. We should at times rejoice in the decomposition of things because that means that we get the opportunity to make things new again. This is true but also unpopular as a philosophy. People feel like they work hard to compose and build their lives but what happens when things get old, stale? Then what do you have left.
ABOVE: An image of a mother and child walking in the subway.
BELOW: An eerie parking lot which I had to walk through to get to the subway, cold and damp like the weather.
Things Come Full Circle
So after almost ten years of living and working in Germany I finally found my way out of the winter blues. All it took was for me to change my opinion of it, the reason why it is what it is. Surprisingly, by doing so, I was able to develop an opinion about other things that had previously puzzled me. I won’t say I haven’t struggled at all during these grey winters. As I write this, its 3 degrees outside, no sunlight. In fact, its 4pm and whatever sunlight was shining is no longer. I’m cold even inside of my house. They say that the war in the Ukraine will cause energy prices to more than double in 2023 across Europe, so I’ve decided to wear extra clothes instead of turning on the heater as often as I might have in winters prior. It sucks sometimes but when you realize that the wintertime can be likened to an exercise in resilience it all begins to make sense and I begin to appreciate it as much as I appreciate the spring or summer time.
ABOVE: Wiesbaden main train station. Known in German as the “Hauptbahnhof”.
BELOW: Self portrait on a cold day exploring.
I sat in a coffee shop after walking half the day through my city, just thinking. I had a small notebook in my pocket with keywords that I usually jot down to remind me of thoughts I had in the day I gathered from my observations. I saw a family sitting down at a table across from me. I saw what seemed to be a great grandmother, grand daughter and a newborn child. I saw the great grandmother grab and hold the newborn child and I was inspired to write these words.