When doctors offer a few words of reassurance, patients suffering an allergic reaction begin to feel better more quickly. The finding by Stanford psychologists suggests that the placebo effect applies to words as well as to pills. It might be especially easy to love winter in Tromsø – it’s magical, surrounded by snowy mountains and fjords. But I think the people in Tromsø have strategies for making winter wonderful that people can use wherever they are. People in Tromsø see winter as full of opportunities, whereas in the U.S. we tend to only focus on the ways winter limits us and the things we can’t do. Of course, when we shelter-in-place, there’s a lot we can’t do and it’s easy to focus on that. And I’m not suggesting that people deny this reality or ignore all of the suffering and loss and things we’re missing this year. But given that we’re all stuck in a situation no one wants to be in, how can we focus on a) what opportunities might be present? and b) the things that we do enjoy about the winter season, to bring us a little bit of comfort?