Chionophile

Martha Kennedy 19 Comments

Feeling like a total freak mourning winter’s passing while everyone around cheers the arrival of spring, I was stunned to see a word posted by a Facebook friend, a noun, for creatures like me (and my big white dog). Chionophile. OK, Chionophiles are mostly animals who live high up in the mountains or on either of the poles, but why not Polar Bear Yeti T. Dog and me?

There are also people who suffer Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in spring and summer rather than in fall and winter. It’s rare, but the symptoms are anxiety, insomnia and a feeling of being overwhelmed. Funny that’s how summer makes me feel. People all around are all excited about what they’re doing in summer. I try, but for me, summer is a trial. I just try to make the best of it as I wait for it to end. Back in the day, I taught almost every summer. The money was great, but also I didn’t notice summer as much.

In doing my research into this yesterday, I discovered that Norwegians and Icelanders don’t suffer from winter SAD. Either they are incredibly stoical about the cold and dark, or they (as every article stated) like it. They even have a Norse god and goddess who represent winter and winter survival skills. Skadi (Goddess) and Ullur (God) live in the highest mountains, are expert hunters and go everywhere on skis.

I’m good with Skadi. She’s depicted on Nordic skis, hunting in the high, snowy mountains with a blue-eyed white wolf. It seems to me that getting through the seasons ahead will depend on training for the Birkebeiner and, maybe, getting a 4×4 car.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/03/03/rdp-sunday-trial/

19 thoughts on “Chionophile”

  1. I’m not keen on summer because it’s too hot. I love autumn. Winter in Britain is often cold, wet and muddy. It rarely snows and when it does everything grinds to a halt because no one knows how to drive in it. The nice thing about spring is the flowers…

  3. Winter is OK for me if it behaves. It can be cold frosty, but when I go out with the car it must be safe to drive on the roads: no snow heaps or skidding, just sensible, but of course it must look pretty with its piles of snow in the right places at the right time. OK, I know I am being selfish, but walking with a walker or in a wheelchair and depending on a car to get to places, I have got that way. No blizzards, no icy rain and I am OK.

  4. I just looked this up!
    Chionophobia is the extreme dislike or fear of snow. The word originates from Greek chion meaning snow and phobos meaning fear, aversion or dread. People with Chionophobia often understand that their fear is unfounded and weird. However, they are unable to control it.
    What a strange world we live in!

    • That’s what I’m hoping. My Focus is great, but it’s tiny and while it’s so far gone everywhere I need it to, it can’t go all the places I want it to. I could go skiing today if I had a 4×4. I’m hoping to get a Renegade Trailhawk.

  6. I am not a Chionophile, even though I have northern European genetics and growing up in an area frequently under snow deeper than my head. I never adapted to the cold – unlike everyone else around me. My hands and feet would be numb and I’d be shivering while the other kids wouldn’t even notice it.

    Today I enjoy my snow in measured quantities and have far better quality cold weather gear than I did back then.

  7. I can cope up to about 35c. After that I retreat to the dark cave. I probably get less natural light on those days, then I do in winter. And my mood falls until light and balance is restored. Bit like a plant really. 🙂 Perhaps it is your Swiss heritage that enables you to live life to the fullest in winter?

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