If Winter’S Got You Down, Look For Bright Side
The last Friday of February turned sunny.
I’m sure you noticed.
When you live in the Pacific Northwest, a sunny day in February is news.
Good news.
News that cuts through the fog of the worst month of the year in one of the greatest places on Earth.
Between Nov. 1 and March 1, our region can count on only 12 clear days.
That’s 12 clear days out of 120, or three clear days a month all through the winter.
The rest are cloudy days. Some are called partly cloudy, but most are deeply, darkly cloudy.
That’s why February seems much longer than 28 days.
We’ve had it by now.
Since Halloween we’ve awakened to 108 gray mornings.
Our pallid, pasty faces long for a ray of sun.
Living months at a time in an overcast world makes you crazy and want to eat only cookies for dinner.
Science knows this.
A lack of sunlight on the face and in the eyes creates anxiety, depression and that trademark February funk that leads people to say, “I’ve got to get out of here.”
Would this be a bad time for people to try to work out their problems?
Yes.
Better to wait until May.
If deadlines and ratings don’t allow a wintertime break, maybe the politicians and talk radio hosts should spend half an hour a week under a happy light.
A number of Spokane health clubs and other clinics offer full-spectrum lighting treatments this time of year.
According to Patty McNulty, director of the Inland Massage Institute, clients who have used her company’s Sunspectra light therapy system come out changed people.
“It’s really phenomenal how you feel when you get out,” McNulty said on the one sunny Friday in February.
“People usually feel increased energy right way. Their concentration is better. They feel like the time in the light takes that edge off.”
Another cure for crankiness this time of year is to remember the bright spots of a gray season.
Remember that the skiing has been the best in years. You can drive to Mt. Spokane or 49 Degrees North or Silver Mountain in an hour or so when people back east are flying on planes all day to find Colorado.
Think of all the beautiful indoor places you haven’t visited that are right next door.
Start in downtown Spokane with Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral at dusk to experience the stunning stained glass.
Swing by the Hotel Lusso lobby. Be good to yourself and someone you love and stay overnight in this elegant, classy hotel that recently won a historic preservation award.
When you get down, consider the remarkable people who are going through this winter with you, and whose triumphs are much greater than you can imagine.
Marcia Huff, for example, is a sixth-grade teacher at north Spokane’s Woodridge Elementary who a year ago was told she would never walk again after a serious automobile accident.
She’s walking, teaching and inspiring her students this very winter.
Count as good fortune the many good schools that are educating our children this winter all over the region.
Franklin Elementary students in Spokane made the biggest gains in combined math, reading, writing and listening scores of any elementary school in Washington state.
The Idaho state teacher of the year is doing her good work at Hayden Meadows Elementary. Judy Bieze keeps a rocking chair in the classroom so she can comfort kids when they get down in winter.
We could all use a bit of comforting when the blahs of February set in.
Don’t succumb.
Sure, it’s gray out there, but life is better throughout the region.
Shopping is better. You can still find a phone jack at 8:30 at night in the Spokane Valley Mall Radio Shack.
Antiquing is better. Just visit Cisco’s in Coeur d’Alene, and you will see.
The art scene has never been more vibrant thanks to the Jundt Center at Gonzaga University and the Cheney Cowles Museum’s downtown Art at Work gallery.
People of all ages and beliefs are working on their spiritual sides this winter.
Catholic teenagers all around the region spent February lifting their spirits at record numbers of confirmation services.
Others are working on their physical skills. The Coeur d’Alene Viking girls basketball team won a trophy at state for the first time ever.
In Spokane, B basketball fever will heat up next week with Wenchi Liu and the St. George’s girls as the team to watch.
Even the banks and the utilities have cheered us this winter by saying Y2K won’t be a problem for them.
Look for the bright side.