Don't Like the Weather? Just Wait a Second... ~ @AuthorKristina Knight

This spring has been a weird one. We have yet to make it more than a day or so at a steady temperature. Take yesterday. We were sitting at 35 most of the day, with rain. Last night the temperature suddenly shot up to about 50, still with rain, and then the wind started up so it sounded like a freight train was running through out house. Today, the winds are hanging on and now it's about 30 degrees again.

I think Mother Nature might have lost her mind or something because spring is supposed to be, you know, kind of warm and with a bit of sunshine. Not grey and gloomy and cold.

It's not just the weather, either. Social media continues to be gloomy and cold. The news is gloomy. And all the gloomy is making me...well, gloomy, too.

I've been skipping my morning walks (because who wants to walk in a downpour or 20 degree and windy kind of a day), I've been drinking too much cocoa (because cocoa on a gloomy day is about the only thing that's motivating me to get out from under my warm blankie), and bingeing too much TV (because what's better than snuggling under a blankie when it's cold and escaping into someplace warm?).

But I have been writing. Because I don't like being gloomy and writing helps me get to my happy place. When I'm writing, I'm not stuck in the gloom and the grey. I'm right there in the middle of summer with the hot sun beating down and a cold glass of lemonade or tea in my hand. I'm at that community picnic or baseball game, I'm swimming in the pool, or basking in the sun on the beach. Like reading, writing has the ability to transport me to whatever place I'd rather be. So, really, my wordcount so far this spring should be much higher than it is...but the words I've gotten? I'm keeping, and I'm building on them every day.

I read a non-fiction book a year or so ago (2K to 10K: Writing Faster) a couple of years ago, and it set off a lightbulb in my brain. Because when I'm in the groove of getting that first draft down on paper, its easier not to hit social media first thing in the morning (and stay there all day). It's easier to shut out that 25th straight day of grey skies or that headline that I just know is going to take me down a rabbit hole of time-waste.

So, while the late winter and early spring gloom has been a bit longer and greyer and gloomier than it's been in a couple of years, and while I was letting that gloom incapsulate me for a little bit...I'm getting back to where I want to be. I'm writing. I'm reading. I'm happier.

There's an old saying that if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes and it'll change. This winter and spring I gave the weather a bit more than five minutes...but I'm taking the five minutes back. Because it isn't the weather that needs to change, its my attitude about the weather.

How about you? Do gloomy days make you want to veg out in front of the TV? How do you overcome that urge?                                                                    ~Kristina