Blogmas Day Twenty Three – Guest post by Keeanne

Hey there everyone!! Happy Christmas Eve Eve (if anyone got that reference then wow I am so impressed!!)

Today, it being only two days left until Christmas, I’m bringing you the last guest post of Blogmas and a very special one at that. Today, I’m going to share with you a creative piece written by my best friend Keeanne. It’s truly a beautiful story but I won’t give too much away about it except for one last thing … The piece is called ‘Winter’.

If the world had one truth it would be that “we are the sum of our surroundings”. We are what others see; what others say and how they speak. The world is the aggregate of endless individuality.

We are the sum of our surroundings, of the air and earth. We are the downfalls and triumphs of humanity. We are stuff made of galaxies, both the good and the bad and no one reflected this better than Winter.

From the day of her birth Winter was shunned; she was exiled by the enmity displayed towards her. She could find no home or sense of normalcy, for Winter was the season everyone dreaded, she was the season they tried to ignore.

She was hid from and warded against; all creatures tried to escape her embrace. She was cursed and hated for the crops she stole. She was detested for the warmth her dawn could not hold. Her leave was celebrated and her arrival feared. Winter was the most unloved Season.

At first she didn’t mind, she understood not everyone could love her. At first Winter was content in the acceptance of her brothers and sister. At the start Winter wasn’t offended, she knew that her cold waged a certain war; at the start Winter believed that there was love to heal her forming scars.

But as the years went by and the world matured, even her brothers and sisters seemed to realise the universal truth. Winter was becoming bitter, she was frosting over in her core. She was becoming harsher in her winds and more destructive in her storms. She had seen others rejoice and favor her family; she had spent her entirety feeling the absence of her weather’s compatibility.

Winter was becoming the feared season she was perceived as; she was tired of pretending their words didn’t hurt. She dropped more snow as they shoveled, she became more icy as they cursed, she hurled hail at their threats for she was starting to understand she would never be blessed. She would never be welcome for she was always too cold, her duration was always too long and she was always too close. She hurt the homeless and the wealthy, the secure and the drifting, she showed no mercy or empathy. She was unyielding.

Winter was despondent, she resigned to her fate. Winter believed that no one would love her for all the hardship she could not help but bring.

And so Winter reigned more fiercely in the 3 months that she had. Winter tried to cause the most damage; she left chaos wherever she chose to glance. Winter became harder until even ice seemed soft – Winter knew that the world would not accept her and so she became everything they prayed she was not.

And she went on this way for years, and eventual decades until one day a snowflake fell on an inconspicuous windowsill. Winter did not notice for she had dulled her senses through her rage; she no longer noticed where her essence fell unless it was causing some kind of pain.

So she fell on a windowsill and took less than any note, for she fell on thousands of surfaces in a millisecond on a clock. She fell on a windowsill and she could feel warmth through the glass, she could hear laughter through her storm and it was this that caught her attention.

Why should people enjoy Winter, when she was decaying with self hate; why should there be laughter when all she felt was pain?

Winter looked through the window and what she saw changed her heart; what she saw awoke her sleeping senses, it brought back a life she thought she had long given up.

There was laughter in the home as people huddled around a fire, a fire brought on by her cold. There was joy through the window as the humans decorated a tree, they wreathed it with lights and baubles all while chanting a harmonious melody.

Winter focused harder, she saw through windows across the world; she saw the laughter and the joy brought on by her season’s cold and fierce winds. She saw families celebrating her with their fake snow and sleigh rides, she saw people build snow-men and laugh as they launched her essence through missiles.

Winter cast her gaze further she saw the cold form a line, she saw soup placed in steaming cups and donations bring a smile.Winter watched the people and she heard whispers of a word; a word that made her feel accepted – a word that made her feel less shunned by the world. Winter heard Christmas and it was then she felt less alone, for Christmas was her Winter, and the fabled Santa came from a Winter-made home.

Winter heard Christmas and glimpsed a feeling of hope; she felt a level of peace she had never truly known. Her brothers and sisters saw their damned sister change; her storms came less often and her snowflakes fell with more grace.

All creatures felt the change as their 3 months seemed more bearable; there was a sudden warmth in the frozen sunlight that was new to their experience.

Winter heard Christmas and she knew she now had something to call her own. She now had an identity beyond the curses she had always felt like sharp knives to her throat. Winter had Christmas and maybe that meant she could be more, so she thawed out her senses and became open to the joy her cold could cause.

Christmas meant family, it meant a celebration of what was brought, it was the end of a season and a dawn of a new year to come. Christmas meant laughter and a time to reflect; and Winter was the bringer of this world celebrated period.

Christmas meant giving in a way independent of self wanting, Christmas meant finding comfort even in the darkest moments. Winter was born anew through her discovery of Christmas, she was inspired by the resilience shown in others. Where she previously saw despair Winter now saw preservation, she understood that all things had a time and place. Winter found acceptance through the humanity of her surroundings. Winter was Christmas and vice versa.

THE END

Okay ‘the end’ wasn’t part of Keeanne’s piece – it was more just a way for me to break up the story and my little goodbye message, but how amazing?? What did you guys think? I don’t know about you but I got goosebumps when I first read it so I hope you loved this piece as much as I did and Kee thank you so much for writing this incredible piece for my blog!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve everyone – I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your day! Go have something sweet and delicious – that’s an order!

Lots of Love

Blondey on a Mission xxx