Today is the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. After this dark night our days will become longer and filled with more light.
Wishing you all a bright and wonderful Christmas, and a new year filled with light and wonder.
winter
A quiet repose in winter
The snow of winter has a way of draping its white over everything. The trees become lined emphasizing their structure and branches. The ground becomes white showing the curves and hips of hills. At the University of Minnesota Saint Paul campus is a wonderful sculpture setting of cows. These bigger than life animals are resting peacefully in their urban setting. The snow has draped over them also, quietly emphasizing their repose and seeming indifference to the weather. They’re a great reminder to me to accept the weather, accept the snow, and appreciate its beauty.
A snowshoe hike in the woods
The snow had been falling for hours. To counter my cabin fever, I strapped on my snowshoes and headed into the woods. The air was filled with quiet except for the occasional wind that would stir and force the snow to fall from the branches. I hadn’t expected the snow to be so very deep in the woods, but it was tough and slow trudging through knee-deep snow. Needless to say it took me much longer than I had expected. But I was rewarded with beautiful snowy vistas, exercise in the fresh outdoors, and I was even serenaded by trumpeter swans in the distance.
The short-lived beauty of a bubble in winter
The cold and snow make us pause. We can’t hurry and just do the things we normally do — walking on ice-covered paths takes attention and concentration, and five to ten minutes are the minimum just to bundle up to step out in sub-zero temperatures. But pausing gives us time to observe and to appreciate. This bubble becomes frozen in a near instant, with crystals forming on the inside and refracting the morning light as the sun rises over the new fallen snow. Many other bubbles broke as they landed, too fragile to absorb an impact on the soft snow. And even this bubble was short-lived. The wind picked up and it shattered quickly; how happy I was that it commanded my attention for a short span.
Winter’s sunset at Lake Como
It was a bitter cold day and evening but the sun had been shining and the blue sky had beckoned people outside. I was at Lake Como and there were walkers and runners following the path around the lake, there was one lone ice fisherman, and there were people who had laced up their skates and were gliding across the ice where the surface was smooth. It was a glorious time, and the sunset glowed in the ice surface and in the clouds above. For a few moments it was beautiful, and not quite as cold as we thought.
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