Straight from the Heart

If winter has taught me anything, it is this: a pasta dinner tastes best after breathing hard in the wintry air, a white forest on a clear and cold night is an excellent foundation for dreaming, and that the love in your life is warmer the colder it is outside.

Once when I was in college I took a girlfriend up the shore of Lake Superior to a lodge for a romantic night during a cold winter.  Wrapped up on a rug next to the fireplace, we cuddled and nibbled on homemade cookies that she had decorated for our getaway.

Later, dozens of candles illuminated the water of the hot tub and our voices whispered softly for hours.  It was comfortable and cozy despite the frigid waves crashing out the front window, and looking into her eyes late that night I knew I loved her. 

Now, even though we don’t date anymore, I still love her.  And regardless if she shares this sentiment, I probably always will.  We went our own way (one to a cabin-one to a city) for agreeable reasons and I still believe we made the right decision. 

What I am left with is a meaningful connection with someone special that was nurtured during a season when the mercury hangs low.

And so I give you my winter love story. 

Hold them extra close, whether they are friends, family, or a significant other.  And no matter what the future brings, you’ll always share that adoration.

I may tuck into a cabin on the flanks of Mount Hood by myself, but I am a young man rich with love from the people and places I have shared below freezing temperatures with.

I don’t regret much in my life, and certainly not the relationship she and I had.  I think what we had enriched both of our lives, and that night at the lodge was a memorable part of it.  After convincing her to leap with me from that soothing hot tub into what I assumed was powdery snow — but in fact was coated with an icy crust — she might feel otherwise.  But I doubt it.

To read this story in its entirety, visit the Mt Hood Magazine Blog.

By Lucas Will