From The Innkeepers

A Winter’s Winter Starts to Give Way
A Blog for March 2025

A year ago, in the winter of 2024, we barely had a season you could call winter.  We had so little snow that our plowing service only came a couple of times.  We were routinely hitting temperatures in the sixties at this time a year ago.  Our water fowl had already returned, the greening and blossoming of our world had already commenced.  This year it is a different story.  We have a winter that winter could be proud of for flexing its muscles.  Many of our nights clocked in at below zero temperatures only rising to single digits during the daytime.  Thirty and forty mile per hour wind gusts have been a frequent occurrence, with winds in the teens and twenties range being the normal course of business. Our heating bill has risen to heights not ever seen in the 21 years that we have been here. And as for snow, we’ve already had to be plowed out eight times this season, which of course makes Dave (our plow guy) very happy. 

But just in the past few days there’s been a breaking of winter’s determination to make its presence felt.  Could this be the start of winter’s dogged tenaciousness giving way to what follows?  We have gratefully seen temperatures creep up for a day or two into the forties.  Much of the snow is melting and little patches of grass are becoming visible in a few spots.  It’s a little early for rejoicing in the season of Spring that comes later this month, but it is never too early or late for hope of what is yet to come.

Every day it is easy for me to go to bed with gratitude in my heart.  But sometimes I do not exactly bound out of bed and wake up grateful.  It takes at least the partial unfolding of the day for me to be brought to that mindset.  But this time of year, with the promise of spring right around the corner, with sometimes being awoken by sunshine flooding into the east window of the bedroom, a lightheartedness that leads to gratitude sets the tone for the day. 

 As there are subterranean movements of thawing beneath the surface of the earth this time of year, warmth giving way and making room for rootedness and new growth.  So to it is with us.  Winter dullness and seeming indifference give way and make room for the growth of a more grateful heart.    When our hearts awaken in gratitude it returns us to our essential nature which is to be a loving human being.  The love which exists as a force within us becomes more alive, and no matter how we choose to express it, it tips the balance of the universal scale.  It’s what the world needs us to do right now.  

Wishing you blessings in the coming month.

Marcia, Pat, Sharon, and Ryan

Keepers of the Rustic Gate