The winter blahs arrived early this year.

I mean, come on!
Even our underground and indoor subway stations are encased in ice. 

Listen, we Chicago folk are a hardy bunch, but this winter is starting to fray on everyone’s nerves. The deep freeze doesn’t usually settle in until February or so, but this year it arrived around the holidays and hasn’t really let up since then. The rare days where to sun is actually visible or the temperature is above 20º F are aberrations we get excited about, but for the most part the city has just been encased in a grey, frozen envelope and that does get hard to live in.

I was born here but grew up both down south and on the east coast before landing back in Illinois near the end of high school, and there’s a part of me that always thought I’d eventually move out west into climes that are warmer year-round. These days that seems less and less likely, through there are seriously periods of time—and this is one of them—where I wonder why I don’t care enough about my mental health to move somewhere sunnier and warmer. This questioning of my own sanity has only grown stronger in recent years as I found more solace in long outdoor walks and realized just how important both nature and sunshine have become to my wellbeing.

I did pick up a treadmill last year, so I am lucky enough to be able to keep moving throughout the day, even as long outdoor journeys have become less pleasant and more arduous. And I suppose I could buy a sun lamp to help offset the constant cloud cover sapping my internal battery. So, it’s not like I don’t have options! But man oh man, I am really missing the hour or so I could just wander off to the nearby forest preserve and get lost in sun-dappled greenery right now.