Oh How I Love Winter

I don't think of myself as an outdoorsy person.  I'm not against it, it just isn't part of my profile. But I realize that many times when I'm moved enough to write it has something to do with the natural world.  Nature speaks to me.  So let me confess here:  I'm a winter lover.   It is my second favorite season after fall, then spring, then summer comes in dead last for me.  But truly I appreciate all four seasons and wouldn't want to live without any of them.

So it is cold.  But it isn't hot!  And it is dark.   But that gives me more time to read my beloved books, write, and stay home with my family instead of gallivanting until the 9pm sunset.  And it can be snowy, which I know has its downside with car accidents and snow-shoveling slip-and-falls.  But for me the beauty is the snow.     

Seeing the sun hit the snow makes me feel joy.  I feel like my 8 year old self is right here beside me, oohing and ahhing. Like I'm discovering this miracle for the first time.  I want to shake people nearby and say 'how can you be missing this? ' 

Of course in Illinois we get a lot more 'snow in clouds' than 'snow in sunlight' and so it is a rare treat when the diamonds come out to play.  But it sings to my inner soul in the same way late afternoon sunlight on the ocean does.  The same way the starry sky does when you are laying out in the grass after dark.  I try to absorb the beauty, so it will get me through the next windchill of minus twelve and the dirty gray slush that is a few days ahead.  One more thing to hold on to before I head into work or the drugstore, or wherever regular life is taking me. 

I am amazed that this beauty is just sitting there.  It isn't forcing itself on you.  It is just there.  Waiting for you to notice it. Or not.  And when I do, if I do, I feel that connection to myself from the days of four-leaf-clovers and tadpole collecting. Filling my senses with a million tiny pinpricks of light. It must be magic.  Captain Hook's treasure chest poured out, jewels as far as the eye can see.

 I probably sound crazy.  I am crazy.  Crazy for re-experiencing the wonder of a child. Notice.

p.s. I haven't even mentioned how lovely a single snowflake is.  Or how much I love ice-skating. Or my great memories of sledding. Or snowmen. Or crystalline trees after an ice storm. Or my fondness for hot chocolate, mittens, and fireplaces....