Winter Thoughts

Thinking again of winter, or, to be more precise, of snow. I am sure that I have said it before: there is no quiet more complete or all-enveloping than that of snow. To lie in a field knee-deep with snow is truly to be at peace. And I have found myself in need of such peace these past few weeks. No specific sense of stress, or tension, or dread. Just a vague desire to “get away”. Most people long to lie on a hot, sunny beach in some tropical latitude. For me, it’s the white pristine reaches of the northern world.

What a delightful poem I have recently found. It is "Blizzard", by Barbara Reiher-Meyers:

Gale warning hail warning
Sky sifts high drifts
Finding bright blinding white
Snowball snowfall
Moonscape snowscape
Frostbite dost bite
Rococo swirls hot cocoa curls
Icy glove spicy love
Huddle in cuddle in
Rock salt clocks halt

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It is 12:13, just past midnight. Today is my grandmother’s birthday. She is 84 years old. Many winters come and gone, and still she lives in Ohio. No snowbird, she.