Midwinter Reverie

This winter is passing slowly...chill winds, softly drifting snow, grey-white skies...kettles of soup, pots of tea, warm scones...this winter is passing slowly, in its own time.

So often in the past few years, the winter weather has simply been an inconvenience...snow and ice just a reason to grumble and don boots and heavier layers as I rushed to the office, with train delays and miserable slushy subway platforms adding to the bleakness. I recall uncomfortable nights curled on an office sofa, knees bent, shivering under my coat - sleeping at the office so the snows wouldn't interfere with my work.

This winter has been so very different! I am working mostly from home, and when I am not at home I am in my local library or cafe...and my attitude towards the weather is no longer combative. I no longer grumble and worry about being stuck with soggy toes for 10 hours. I no longer check weather reports and determine if I can make it home and back. 

Now, I relish...

I delight in following puffs of soft snow with my eyes as they lazily drift down from white skies...

I shiver and wrap up in soft, warm shawls and sip steaming hot tea and anticipate walking in the woods to admire dark trees lined in silvery frost...

I listen to the muffled silence, the soft crunch of footsteps, the whispering wind...

I admire the ever so soft shadings of shell pink and pearl grey in the overcast skies...

I stand transfixed as strobes of white streak across the night skies, tossed in the winds, and flicker in our house light...

This winter is passing slowly...it is now only early February, and we have had numerous snowfalls and below-freezing evenings...and numerous cracking fires and pots of tea. I say time is passing slowly, but I think it is really that I have simply slowed down to enjoy its pace, to live within an older, bigger rhythm.