The Red Hand, 22nd Day of Hagwinter, 525 M.E. (Castor): Fuck, I'm cold. 

Sub-freezing temperatures as low as 15° F are expected across north and central Georgia until at least  10:00 am tomorrow. Last night, the temps fell down into the 30s and warmed up only to the low 40s this afternoon. Cloud cover is deflecting the sun's warmth today, and then clear skies overnight will let whatever warmth we have left to radiate away.

The cold air is due to a dip in the jet stream that is allowing cold air to spill down from the Arctic. The jet stream typically keeps the cold air contained over the Arctic, but a warming Arctic disrupts the normal jet stream and a more wavy, meandering pattern develops, which leads to lobes of cold Arctic air moving southward. Periodic bouts of these wavy, undulating patterns have always occurred in the jet stream, but a warming planet is increasing the natural variability. Just like there's always been hurricanes but climate change is increasing their strength, there's always been dips in the jet stream but climate change is increasing their frequency .  

Whenever it gets cold like this, Zen practitioners always bring up a famous saying of the ancient Chinese Zen Master Dongshan. A monk once asked him, "When cold or heat comes, how can we avoid it?" 

Dongshan said, "Why don't you go to the place where there is no cold or heat?"

The monk asked, "What is the place where there is no cold or heat?"

Dongshan said, "When it's cold, let the cold kill you; when it's hot, let the heat kill you." 

A place neither hot nor cold. The place where there is no cold and no heat doesn't exist as a geographical location. The term's a pointer toward the absolute and the relative. Does a marble roll around in a bowl, or does the bowl move around the marble? Is it the marble that moves, or the bowl that moves? Or is it the mind that moves? 

Similarly, is the weather hot or cold, or is it the person that's hot or cold? After all, it's only hot or cold relative to our bodies and our preferences. Today is a warm day to a glacier or an iceberg. Going to a place that's neither hot nor cold means giving up our preferences and abandoning the ego. It's recognizing that "it's" not cold, we are what's cold. Further, letting the cold kill us doesn't mean dying, it means letting go of the self and its preferences. It's an ego-death, not hypothermia. 

Cool. Doesn't make me feel any less cold, though. 

The Stoics advise that the weather is simply part of nature and beyond our control, and that we should focus instead on what we can control, such as dressing warmly or building a fire. All things, including cold weather, are temporary. We may think the cold is more than we can bear, but the time will come when the weather is warmer and we will realize that we had the strength to endure it all along. Enduring cold weather doesn't make us stronger, it just helps us realize that we've always had the strength.  

Consider the Wizard of Oz. The Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow never lacked courage, heart, and wisdom. They had the attributes all along, they only needed to realize it. We have the strength to endure this cold snap if we only silence that part of our mind that tells us that we don't.