I’ve always been a winter person. Something about the season has appealed to me again and again. I love how the air is always so crisp and mystifying, and the way the world transforms — the way the windows freeze, the way the snow mist dances on the pavement, and the snow itself.

Everything is more peaceful when it snows. A silence covers the earth that you can’t get anywhere else. When I smell the fresh scent that arrives with the snow I experience such an extreme feeling of weightlessness that all of my stress immediately floats away. What I love more than anything is stepping outside right after a snowfall and seeing the way the sun sparkles off the newly covered surfaces. It’s a magic that cannot be created anywhere else.

And this is the magic that has always gotten me through the cold winter months. Winter is so simplistically beautiful. It appears as if everything can start anew when that glistening snow falls atop everything creating a sheet of radiant diamonds. It's as if the silence that arrives with the snow makes it easier to hear clearly.

Now, try arriving at any place with other people on a day like today. A day when the roads are wet and slippery and it thus takes twice as long to drive anywhere. A day when people wake up and look outside only to grumble about how they’ve had their share of winter already and the snow is no longer endearing. Try walking into a room full of people who are dreaming of beaches and sun and make a comment about how wonderful the snow is. I dare you. That’s not a reaction you’ll likely forget.

I think people forget that they’re allowed to enjoy themselves at times. They forget that it’s OK to take a minute away from their overly busy lives and just look around. Something as innocent as the snow sets these people off. Why is it so hard to look at something like a snowfall as a gift? As a simple reminder that there are good, pure, beautiful things out there, and that it’s OK to enjoy them now and then.

When people ask me how I can love winter, there is no way to explain it. I just want to ask them, “How can you not?” It fills me with a feeling of such great hope. Maybe what those people need to do is stop trying to find all the faults, and maybe then they’d see what I see. Anything can be beautiful is you’re willing to give it that chance, and that includes cold winter days.