wisdom comes with winters

We are 23 days into 2015. So far this year has been very cold, very very cold. I keep on walking to work no matter what. Some days it has been insanely slippery, other days insanely windy along with horrible cold but I keep on walking. When I say horrible cold I talk about -20°c to -30°c. When you add the wind factor to that, it is even colder.

I have to walk 2.3 km to work and the same back. As it takes me 30-40 minutes, depending on weather conditions, it means at least a total of one hour of walk every day. Most of the time more as I don't always go directly home.
My colleague had a wonderfully philosophical point of view. Here was what she said to me just yesterday morning at work "There are people who barely go out in the winter and when they do they keep on shaking and complaining that they are freezing. We, you and me, are not like them. We go out there and breathe in the winter. This is our country and we welcome it in to the very bones of our body". We were standing in the kitchen poring us a hot coffee and I think this was my most patriotic moment so far here in my soon to be 3 years in Canada. 
Today was however a much milder day. Only -10°c when I walked to work. Felt like spring was knocking on the door. As it was even milder in the evening, I decided to go skiing.
I still ski in Bromont. It's about the only thing that has remained the same during these 3 years. That and my car. 

Ski Bromont is about 1 hour drive from Montreal. A little more when lots of traffic. There are other ones closer but I'm used to this one and really like it here. It is apparently the biggest lit-up skiing area in America. On 7 hillsides with around 100 slopes. So why change?

So  as I keep on walking further and farther in to 2015 I will be passing dates celebrating my 3 years in Quebec and later on 9 months in Montreal. By the time spring catches up, I will have walked myself a little wiser. Wisdom comes with winters, they say. Better walk out, open my mind and let that wisdom enter all the way to my spinal cord.