Photos and text by Barb Jenks Triffon
More than any other month of the year, January seems the loneliest.
Maybe it’s the steely cold weather, the continued darkness or the letdown after December holidays.
Whatever it is - January IS NOT a month for sissies.
Growing up in a small, Midwest river town during the 50s taught me early on the harsh realities and lonely confinements of this first month of the year.
Maybe it’s the steely cold weather, the continued darkness or the letdown after December holidays.
Whatever it is - January IS NOT a month for sissies.
Growing up in a small, Midwest river town during the 50s taught me early on the harsh realities and lonely confinements of this first month of the year.
Now, decades later, January’s arrival still spirits me back to those blustery, winter days of my childhood when I helped my older brother deliver his evening newspapers.
Barely old enough to know my multiplication tables, I learned my January lessons well as we pulled our rusted wagon filled with newspapers up and down dark roads and icy hills.
While we walked empty streets lined with anonymous houses, I was thankful for the golden strands of light coming from neighborhood windows, porches and city street lamps.
During those lonely January days, light of any kind provided an almost cosmic comfort to weary, small travelers like my brother and me.
Barely old enough to know my multiplication tables, I learned my January lessons well as we pulled our rusted wagon filled with newspapers up and down dark roads and icy hills.
While we walked empty streets lined with anonymous houses, I was thankful for the golden strands of light coming from neighborhood windows, porches and city street lamps.
During those lonely January days, light of any kind provided an almost cosmic comfort to weary, small travelers like my brother and me.
As we passed countless homes, I remember seeing children playing inside, mothers setting tables and families sitting together for evening meals while we trudged along unseen just a few feet away.
Much like a theater production of "Our Town," I thought it so odd I could watch and become acquainted with these people through their windows, but they knew nothing about me.
Aloneness can stir such profound thinking - even for small children.
Much like a theater production of "Our Town," I thought it so odd I could watch and become acquainted with these people through their windows, but they knew nothing about me.
Aloneness can stir such profound thinking - even for small children.
But that was the 50s. Today, I don’t travel dark streets with a Red Flyer Wagon anymore, but I still welcome the calming lights from winter houses and street lamps during the stillness of a January night.
While I've never been a fan of loneliness, delivering papers with my brother taught me that the "solitude" within moments of "aloneness" isn’t always a horrible thing. I also learned that visits to a January woods can provide priceless moments of introspection and renewal.
Cautionary Note: Bundle up and be prepared. January winters don't give a lot of second chances.
While I've never been a fan of loneliness, delivering papers with my brother taught me that the "solitude" within moments of "aloneness" isn’t always a horrible thing. I also learned that visits to a January woods can provide priceless moments of introspection and renewal.
Cautionary Note: Bundle up and be prepared. January winters don't give a lot of second chances.
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A January Jeffrey Woods Waits in Silence
A January Jeffrey Woods Waits in Silence
"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you ..... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." - Ruth Stout, (1884 – 1980) an American author best known for her no-work gardening books and methods of organic gardening.
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Happy New Year From Jeffrey Woods