We Can't Let Winter Win Print

The most deflating, difficult part of winter is when it appears it will never end, and you don’t know how much more you can take. Life feels like that sometimes, when it seems like winter’s gonna win. 

Winter wins when it convinces us that nothing will ever change, when we allow ourselves to be buried under a blanket of apathy, when we decide to give up and let the hope within us flicker out.

This painting is a reminder that we can’t let winter win. The 8-bit sunflower is reminiscent of a video game, because I think that’s a good way to think of it. When you’re in the middle of one of life’s winters, everything is heavy. Making a game out of it is a way to rise above the life-and-death seriousness of our situation. It takes us ever-so-slightly outside ourselves to give us perspective that is a little wider than the restricted, optionless way winter can feel sometimes.

Instead of focusing on all the ways we are frozen in place and how many more days of winter are ahead, make a game out of finding even one tiny clue that spring is on its way. You don’t need to defeat the Final Boss and save the Princess; you just need to make it past this level. Today.

The game is this: Figure out how to win today.

Don’t let winter win. Keep holding on for spring.