You can’t teach people to be lazy –  either they have it, or they don’t.

— Dagwood Bumstead

I’m Catholic, so for me, guilt is a major part of my life.  And since winter is here, it’s a good thing too.  Guilt may be the only thing that saves me from staying indoors until it warms up.

Winter may not officially start until the winter solstice, but we are definitely into the cold part of the year.  Here in Southern California where we don’t really have four seasons, it has been a strange fall.  We’ve had more rain than usual, which is great for this desert we live in, and we’ve had hot dry 80+ degree days mixed in.  Now we’re getting cold and blowy days followed by colder nights – closer to freezing.

When it’s cold or rainy or gloomy, I tend to want to be a bear and hibernate – not necessarily to sleep but to curl up with my blankets and a good book or good books and the dog and any cats who’d like to join the pile.  I want to be lazy and slow and lethargic.  It’s a real challenge to convince myself to get up and moving.  When I do, I find that I warm up but it takes a real kick in the butt for me to move enough to get warm.  Leave this comfortable pile?  I don’t think so!

But I have a real problem.  I have no maid.  I have no personal servants who will fix me breakfast and draw my bath and dust and vacuum and take the dog out and…  Believe me the dog has got to go out eventually.  I can stall until the sun is up and we get towards the warmer part of the day, but the dog has got to go out.  Which is probably the only thing that keeps me from becoming a complete slug and eventually developing a physique similar to Jabba the Hutt.

See, there’s a reason he’s called Jabba the Hutt.  He’s built like one.  Actually, until I get that maid to fix my meals, I probably have a lower chance of looking like Jabba, I just feel like him.

In my head I know that curling up in a ball and attempting to conserve heat is counterproductive and simply results in me stiffening up until, when I do get up, nothing works very well for the first several steps or so.  I know that the more I sit here with my precious pile of warmth and entertainment, the more sluggish my mind becomes.  It’s as if it would like to hibernate also.  Yet, here I sit – warm and comfortable – sort of…

The one fly in the ointment, so to speak, is that physical sluggishness creates mental sluggishness, which deteriorates into mild depression, which, if allowed to continue can become major depression and a general sense of a lack of purpose.  But it’s cold out there!!! (In case you didn’t catch the tone through the computer screen, that was a definite two year old’s whine.)

What’s a Wimp to Do??

As I said at the beginning, guilt is a major part of my life.

After I’ve gotten up to run to the bathroom several times, I think about my poor doggie who still hasn’t been outside and I put on my sweater and my sweats and my hoodie (over the sweater) and my gloves and I take the dog out.

And what happens?  I survive.  Once we’re out, and it’s not really as cold as I thought it was, I decide to take a short walk to the park.  (After all, I don’t want the dog to look like Jabba the Hutt and she does have a maid to fix her meals – ME.)  The more I move, the warmer I get.  AND, wonder of wonder – miracle of miracles (Fiddler on the Roof), I actually get warm.  I take off the gloves and I start my MP3 player and I listen to some inspiring ideas and I get enthused and I take a long walk.

By the time I complete the long walk, I’m jazzed about the day.  I’ve got plans for lots of stuff to do AND I’m halfway to my 10,000 steps for the day.  When I get to the house, it feels way too hot.  I jump in the shower, get dressed, and get to work.

I wish I could tell you that tomorrow I’ll jump out of bed and get moving.  Unless it warms up, that’s the impossible dream (Man of La Mancha).  But that’s OK.  I was raised Catholic and guilt will prevail again.  Often I’ve cursed guilt but in the end, it’s the gift that keeps on giving – the kick in the butt that I need to do what must be done.