Mid Lenten term blues is a term that is often applied to students around this time of year, especially for those that are away from home. Memories of Christmas vacation seem but a pleasant blur and reading week or spring break cannot come soon enough.

Others in northern climates find the lack of light difficult or may even suffer from SAD..Seasonal Affective Disorder, needing special lamps to infuse the extra Vitamin D.

Alberta fortunately had cold but usually bright sunny winter days, as opposed to overcast dull rainy months of west coast climates. Most provincial governments have declared a mid-winter holiday ours being Family Day, Monday February 15.

So where have the mid-winter blues hit me personally? Quite frankly I miss being north and I mean further north, working in one of the small Nunavut hamlets for January and February as has been my pattern for the past 8 years….I miss the hunkering down with a good book in the evening; sewing classes with co-workers and Inuit ladies, looking outside and wondering whether a blizzard day will be declared or if I will be donning multi-layers to trek across the open field; potluck Friday dinners with nurses, social workers and teachers; Sunday morning 11 AM services totally in Inuktitut with wandering children and welcoming smiles, attending an evening of drum dancing or a community feast; talking to the dogs on the way to work; figuring out  a casserole of soup of the remaining supplies in the fridge, wondering if I am really going to pay $5 for that grapefruit or mango at the Northern; making muffins; getting out on the x-c skis at 1 PM on a weekend afternoon to catch the few hours of light; my nose and right cheek with frost bite and  mostly, the friendships developed.

For a variety of reasons, I will not be going up this winter. It would seem that the need for casual social workers is decreasing as the Dept. is hiring and filling the positions on a more permanent basis. If indeed that is the situation, this is excellent for continuity in the communities….but personally I will miss these treks!

“A door closes and others will open but does not mean one cannot grieve the loss of the first.”

So come summer….well I better be some where in the Arctic in July!

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