Like me, Tutu only travels through the snow when she absolutely has to.

It's only rain today for us here in the North Carolina Piedmont. We're the lucky ones. We would be overwhelmed by the amount of snow that the states just above us are getting.

When it's really bad outside, I remember when I was a child and our little house was warmed by a coal-burning stove in the living room. When it snowed, Mother cooked beans in a pot on top of the stove and baked biscuits down at the bottom where the ash pan was. Beans and biscuits? Not a bad supper!

If only we could all just dwell on the positive side of our memories. Many dollars are being paid these days to people who are still wounded by childhood incidents of abuse or rejection. I say, let the dead bury the dead. Instead of reopening the old wounds, declare yourself healed and spend your money on a trip to a warmer clime. There are folks whom I know very well who are wounded by their parents. They have come to expect pain in all their relationships, and if they don't find it, they create it. When you are really ready to put aside all the drama and just be simply happy in the present, you are well on the way to healing. Now take Tutu, for instance. She is clearly not taking a quiet stroll in the snow. She is doing what she has to do so that she can return to her snug catbed and drift off into kitty dreamland. Tutu respects herself too much to cause herself discomfort. If only human beings could just be as wise as she.