AN ELDER'S THOUGHTS ABOUT WINTER ... All through my youth, I spent many a cold day or evening with skates on my feet, figure-skating with friends on a good public pond in the city in which I was raised. I LOVED the winters! I loved tobogganing too, and enjoyed winter cook-outs, and I even met my dear Bob on the night of a blizzard, and winters and snow would join my memories of our long happy marriage together. In life as a mom, I happily played in the snow with my kids and my grandkids and the kids of our neighbors, and even my dog; and I still made a few snowmen even after I realized I was no longer young enough and would soon be paying the price.. Now as a member of the "old-skin-and-bones generation," I rebel at the thought of the harsh cold and snow that's bound to come on with the winter, but I still have to smile at the thought of those big winter snowflakes falling around me. But at last I am forced to admit, I do spend more time in my own elder season, admiring the beauties of winters from INSIDE my warm house; not OUTSIDE with the COLD! But even if some would find it annoying, I still see the beauties in all of God's seasons in my northeast Ohio; even amid the shivers of winter. But if winter grows long, and if it gets mean, I do hope the Lord will forgive me if I raise my face to the snow and the cold being sent from His skies, and I earnestly ask for His mercy.