I woke up to rainy, windy weather today. The Puget Sound outside my-inlaw’s house is usually calm but this morning it’s choppy with white caps.  My friends up north are texting me about snow on the ground. Although it has been technically fall since the end of September, it really felt like the seasons were changing this week with the cool air coming in.

Most years I dread the onset of fall and winter. I dread the grey skies and the dark days. I tell myself to just endure until the summer. I’ve proudly proclaimed myself a fair weather outdoors person.

However this year, I’m trying something different. I’m going to get myself into nature once a week, no matter what. I’m going to embrace the wet and cold, and grey skies. Because the rain is what makes this part of the world so beautiful. Without the dark, grey winters, the bright blue summers wouldn’t seem as wonderful.

Yesterday I went to the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. It was cool, so I bundled up. The geese were stopping in at the fields for a break, and the fallen leaves were covering the boardwalks.  There was a huge difference in the scenery from when I visited in the summer. As I found this quote this morning, and I’m going to keep coming back to it throughout the winter.

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” -Henry David Thoreau