A Winter's Evening

           Sitting on the couch in my living room, all wrapped up in blankets, I turn my attention to the open door on the other side of the room. The windchimes have been erratically bumping against each other due to the blustering wind outside. It has been snowing for sometime now; it's been coming down hard, yet the snowflakes floating through the air gently pushed through the wind. Beside the open-door my unused dining table is piled high with an overwhelming amount of unopened mail and dishes that don't fit in the cabinets. I make a mental note to myself to remember to sort through everything thats cluttered on the table. To the right of the dining table my eyes fall upon a disorganized pile of shoes, wet from playing in the snow. My head tilted to the side so I can see my mother bustling around in the kitchen, dirty dishes piled high in the sink. I see that my sister is with her, keeping our mother company as she makes our dinner. The room is hot from all the cooking, yet the cool air rushing in from the door being cracked open creates a balance in the temperature. I hear them laugh joyfully as my mother teases her about the crush she has on a boy at school. Mother feeds a spoonful of food to her, my little sister's eyes becoming wide once the flavors reach her tongue, eagerly asking for another bite. At that moment, Max, my half-white/half-grey cat, jumps atop the coffee table where most our meals occur, considering the couch surrounds it in a sort of "U" shape as well as being in between our seating area and our TV. After shooing Max off of the table on which we eat, the warmth of the flame blazing in the fireplace lures me in. I get closer and closer until I can feel the heat radiate off my skin. Leaning against the cold brick fireplace, my mind drifts to the sound of laughter from the kitchen, to the sound of Family Feud on the TV, to the sound of the wind chimes outside my door. I see Max on the couch now, looking out of the window, watching the snow fall. He seems especially interested when a snowflake, or two, falls against the glass of the window, reaching up with his paw to try and touch it. I smile to myself, feeling a sense of warmth overcome me from the inside out, quite literally, while sitting beside the fireplace in a home filled with love. What else could one want out of life other than the essential feelings of love and security?