We are looking at January 14th already.
A Wednesday that won't get much warmer than Twenty-five degrees this afternoon. The kind of cold that doesn’t shock anymore. It just reminds us where we are from.
The board reads more like a ledger and less like a poem today. A number that hurts if you know what it means is down in the Grabber section. 14,598 days since the Chicago Bears last won the Super Bowl. Not a statistic, but a measurement of endurance. Anyone can show up for a parade. It takes a different kind of person to keep showing up when the seasons keep turning bad.
Being a Chicago Bears fan is usually a bad season. That isn't cynicism, but experience. It teaches something useful early in life. Don’t build your life around outcomes. Build it around habits, loyalty, memories and showing up when there is nothing to celebrate.
The quote in the middle ties it all together: In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. That’s not motivational bullshit. Seed time is the quiet work to spend reading, listening, failing, collecting lessons that nobody sees. Harvest isn’t about victory laps; it is about responsibility. If you have gathered something real, you owe it back. You teach not to impress, but to steady someone else’s footing.
Winter is where most people lose themselves. They mistake stillness for failure, but winter is where you live off what you have stored. You enjoy without apology because you earned the right to be still.
The times matter. 7:16 a.m. to 4:44 p.m. You showed up. Not for recognition. For continuity. One more day added to the pile of days that make a life. No one day matters much, but together they hold weight.
At a certain age, you stop reaching forward and start leaning back on what you’ve already gathered. Skills. Scars. People. Principles. Faith in what has proven durable. That’s different than wishing. Wishing is thin. This is solid.
Chicago teaches this well. So does being a Bears fan. You learn how to carry losing seasons without letting them define you. You learn that character isn’t built in championships — it’s built in the waiting, the cold, and the staying.
This board isn’t about longing for something that hasn’t come.
It’s about standing on everything that already has.
