I’ve been rather homesick lately. It’s nothing serious, just a pervasive longing for the simple beauties and quietude that certain things in North Dakota bring to me. It is hard to be in sunny California through the holidays and what ought to be the bleaker part of midwinter. As much as the long winters can tire me, I miss how quiet the snow is when it falls. I miss the glistening opaqueness of the snowdrifts piled artfully against a neighbors home and the strength of the pines that grow in the harsh climates and shelter the small birds that make the north their home even throughout the icy cold. I miss the smell of cold and the taste of snowflakes.

I long for the gradual slowing down that happens as winter sets in and the cold winds blow. California is fast paced. People commute for hours in thick traffic. They are very metro and work oriented. Almost no one in North Dakota would put up with a lengthy commute. It just isn’t sensible what with the thirty below windchill and the propensity for blizzards and icy road conditions.

I have been pouring over a recent issue of Midwest Living. The pages are full of warmth. Words like matelasse, snowfall, angora, spun wool, hearth, hot chocolate, cozy all make me want to hunker down in my home. I want to sit around the table with my family, playing games and chatting while the wind howls outside. I want to hang thick drapes in rich colors and throw a thick woolen rug on the floor. I want to stoke a fire and wear fuzzy slipper socks. I want to feel that sense of safety and contentment.

It is hard to hunker down when the worst weather you get is rain and most of the time the weather is so lovely it seems like a crime to be inside. It seems strange to me that my children don’t have snowsuits and that my son has never made a snow angel or tasted the crisp flavor of a fresh snowfall.

Of course North Dakota winter isn’t bliss all the time. The cars sometimes won’t start from the cold and the long cold days inside have the ability to make one feel quite trapped. Stir crazy is a easy place to arrive at when you’ve been stuck indoors because of below freezing temperatures. When your nose goes numb and your snot freezes as you scrape the ice off your car windows at six am for the fifth time that week, you don’t like winter so much.

But North Dakotans are hearty, positive people who will usually give you a quick smile and ask, “Cold enough for ya?” when they greet you. There is a camaraderie between folks when they survive these extended, harsh winters on the prairie together. People are truly neighborly, often shoveling a walk or snow blowing a neighbor’s driveway just because they are there and capable. Little kindnesses abound.

If I could hop a plane and be there for dinner, I would.