It's cold outside, but that's okay. You can make soup, take a hot bath, build a fire (or turn up the heat), learn to knit, sew or crochet, take up checkers, solitaire, euchre or spades. Listen to the radio while making dinner, your Danish language tapes while cleaning your room, a long-crazy-interesting book on tape while folding your sheets. Make your bed every day, and pull your curtains open just wide enough to receive the sun but not the draft. Rejoice when it gets dark at 5:30 instead of 5:00, laugh, talk, sing, spit, love. Make tea and watch it steep. Write a poem of words beginning with the letter "P" about things that are yellow, purple or orange. Tuck your houseplants in at night and make sure they get enough light when the day comes again. Make more soup and get lots of rest. Write a letter/postcard/send a random package to a different person every day, eventually going down the list of distant cousins and long-lost pen pals. Laugh as hard as you can, and go for plenty of walks. Bundle up and walk it out, walk it off, soak it up. Notice the dried flowers in your neighbor's garden and the crackling leaves under layers of snow, your feet and the solid ground. Wear your warmest socks and your brightest scarf.
