Barbara Hazard Munro

Looking Backward; Looking Forward

Years ago, when I was a young child growing up in the suburbs of Long Island, my grandmother gave me a beautiful picture book called Around the Year, by Tasha Tudor. Portraying children enjoying quaint old fashioned farm-type activities in each season, this book strongly influenced my view of what I wanted to experience and to have in my life, as anachronistic as it seemed at the time. The pages for January show children sledding with homemade wooden sleds, roasting apples over an open fire and pulling taffy. This morning, our children, bundled in many layers, have just run out into the snow to sled on the hill going down to our frozen pond, to play in results of the Great Northeast Christmas Blizzard of 2002, looking remarkably like those children in that beloved book. January does bring a time for cozy and relaxing activities, with the demands of planting, cultivating and harvest completed and the new season not yet begun. January brings a chance to reflect, to enjoy the people around us, to appreciate the warmth of home, and to plan another season.