The past weekend was greeted by a cold front that swept through a good portion of the US and even entailed some snow, already, in a few areas. The abrupt drop of temperature, and the snow, gave people - well, some people might not even feel it since the whole country is in great agony caused by the financial meltdown on Wall Street - a sudden jolt: once again, and once a year, winter finally comes around the corner, to some regions if not yet the whole continent, after we have enjoyed the sunny spring, the sultry summer and the pleasant yet short autumn in succession.

With season's vicissitude, winter probably for many people is the last thing they would be looking forward to: the gloomy sky, the bone-chill wind, the freezing temperature combined with dampness, the blowing snow that makes the daily trips to and from work much harder and even a common chore outdoor can turn into an ordeal when you have to slush through the snow-melting street, not to mention the deficiency in sunlight that could possibly give many people a “winter blues”. Oh, no! Not at this time - not when we are still devastatingly weathering through this financial storm, day by day, that originated from Wall Street and it's literally brought the whole world down. 

Well, seasons come and go just like a pendulum of clock – it’s destined to come back when it swings away, either you like it or not. This is the law governed by nature, something that human can do nothing about but obey and show respect to.

On the flip side of the coin, winter actually is the time of the year that has many positive, pleasant things to offer. Winter for sure is the season of holidays, the season of celebration: upcoming is the Thanksgiving Day that celebrates, traditionally, the end of the harvest season, and nowadays the reunion of family and friends. Thereafter is the Christmas that by tradition celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, and these days it's the occasion that people rekindle their kinship with their families, the fellowship with their friends and colleagues, with tons of gifts, greeting cards, emails, phone calls, hugs and handshakes, etc.  Small wonder this is the most heavy consumer spending time all the year around. Then, it’s the New Year’s turn only a week later. New Year is unique in terms of celebration because it’s the juncture of the end of the year that you’re leaving behind and the beginning of the new year that's ahead of you – an ideal time to contemplate on what you’ve achieved in the past year – lost money for sure :-)  - and what you will accomplish in the coming year. And, for the Chinese, winter actually is even better as our holiday season is much prolongated and it outlasts all other's since we still have the Chinese New Year to celebrate after we enjoy all these western festivities. It’s a cultural bonus we're entitled to have thanks to our ancestors!

Apart from all these festivals that we treat ourselves with extravagance, winter provides people with unique ways to get close to nature. Skiing, snow-playing, watching the majestic snow-covered mountains from distance, taking a stroll in the snow-falling evening in the quiet street and watching the sparking ornamentation lights in people’s front yard......The air, the wintry air. I wonder if anybody’s ever noticed that winter’s air is different, different from all other seasons'. It’s fresh, clean, odorless, pure and chilly. Take a deep breath of it, it feels like your lungs are being cleansed inside out and the whole body gets rejuvenated, and mind sobered. You can only get that kind of feeling, one of its kind, out of the crisp air during winter, no any other season, nowhere else.

So, welcome winter - the season of celebration, the season to fully rejoice life!