Catharsis: the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. Minnesotans are more familiar with this process than most because each and every year we endure unimaginable struggle in winter in order to be rewarded with a few short and glorious months of spring/summer/fall.
When you think about it, Minnesota is a peculiar place to willfully decide to live. For several months of the year the weather is literally trying to kill you. Animal migrations exist only because a place like Minnesota exists. If the animals, who are perfectly suited to life outdoors, know to move away you would think that humans would be able to figure it out. We have brain parts specifically devoted to planning and making informed decisions and we can't figure out that Minnesota winters are not worth dealing with.
As spring sets in each year I find the need for serious catharsis from the emotions stored up during long winter months. The depth of my bitterness towards my chosen home usually parallels the bitter temps from the previous winter. Each spring I look forward to that moment when my heart begins to thaw and I feel a more normal range of emotions.
If you've never experienced such a release from a long captivity consider going to jail for a 4-5 months. Every year. Instead of guards and walls and someone else's rules governing your life you will be ruled by thermometers, windchill and snowdrifts. You won't shuffle around in leg irons but you will quickly learn a hands-in-your-pockets, stiff-legged shuffle that braces you against the cold and keeps your feet solidly beneath your body as you travail across the ice.
When that freedom finally comes it is glorious. You wouldn't mind looking silly after serving a long time in jail and we Minnesotans don't mind either. For me and so many Minnesotans there is great catharsis in once again exposing our skin to light and air. The same temperatures in other parts of the country would bring out sweaters and boots but for Minnesotans those first sunny days of 50's and 60's bring out flip-flops, tank tops, and shorts.
This past weekend I had my annual purge of the toxic frustration that winter had built up within me. Each dandelion pulled was celebrated in defiance of winter's broken grip on our lives. Each hole dug for new tomatoes, peppers, flowers, and seeds was done in mockery of months of frozen ground. I have a strange love of yardwork that primarily comes from this annual need to purge months of inactivity and over-thinking that accumulate each winter. I finished the weekend sore, dirty, with unfinished projects littering the yard, and with great joy and comfort in knowing that Father Winter couldn't get his frosty grip on me for several more months.
If you are a Minnesotan I would love to know what your cathartic springtime experiences are. What do watch for to know that we are truly and finally released from winter? Are there some activities and adventures that you anticipate all winter long?
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