I am not a particularly athletic person. Neither am I particularly competitive — at least in an athletic sense. So there are a lot of sports I don’t do. Perhaps it’s just because I’m lazy… I love to sit and write and have to push myself to the pool… where I am competent.But it struck me as I was getting ready to send out this list that many of the simple pleasures of life get pushed aside for the competitive ones. Mindlessly sliding down a hill close to the ground, “through the frosty air,” is fun. Snowmen and women… fun too. There are not a lot of edges to test yourself against… just a lot of laughing shrieks.

When we’d have the first particularly good snow at my college (Wilson College that is!!!!), the President would walk into the dining room at lunch, commandeer the lunch trays and start handing them out. “I’ll meet you on the hill,” he’d say, and he would. it was a pitiful hill, but it was a wonderful afternoon. You slid next to young woman you hadn’t known at the top of the hill and laughed, holding one another upright as you walked back up. Sweet simple Peace. I know that lots of people don’t have the climate for this, so I’ll say this instead: May you find such an uncomplicated Joy this month — and indulge!