Wintering

Snow day

A Valley Like This

Sometimes you look at an empty valley like this,
and suddenly the air is filled with snow.
That is the way the whole world happened —
there was nothing, and then…

But maybe some time you will look out and even
the mountains are gone, the world become nothing
again. What can a person do to help
bring back the world?

We have to watch it and then look at each other.
Together we hold it close and carefully
save it, like a bubble that can disappear
if we don’t watch out.

Please think about this as you go on. Breathe on the world.
Hold out your hands to it. When mornings and evenings
roll along, watch how they open and close, how they
invite you to the long party that your life is.

~ William Stafford

Spruce and willows

The snow filled the air this morning and, as in the poem by William Stafford, made the world disappear.  Sometimes I couldn’t see anything except for the white of the snowflakes as they saturated the landscape.

The world turned white

The snow was so thick at times that my camera refused to focus no matter what tricks I tried.  I think it was confused, not knowing what it was I was trying to hone in on.  Sometimes I was confused, too.  Did I want to capture the trees or the falling snow?  The birds?  The sky?  The pond?

House Finch

Do you have any plans for the weekend?  M and I might go cross-country skiing on Sunday.  They had quite a bit of lake-effect snow north of us this week.  If the sun comes out as predicted, it’ll be a nice day for skiing.  Otherwise, I think we’ll be hanging out here.

Sheltered

In my continual efforts to simplify and downsize, I have decided to spend some time sorting through books for a few hours tomorrow.  I have saved a lot of books thinking I might reread them someday, but it has finally hit me that the likelihood of that, for most of these books, is slim to none.  There are so many new books I want to read (and so many of those new books are sitting on my to-be-read shelf) that I can’t imagine taking the time to reread old favorites anymore.

Taking a respite from the snow

Our local library is always happy to take donations of books.  I bet they would love some DVD’s, too.  It’s about time M and I sorted through that collection as well.

I do believe in simplicity.  It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit.  When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all incumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms.  So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real.  Probe the earth to see where your main roots run.

~ Henry David Thoreau

I’m actually getting excited by the prospect of releasing some of this stuff.  I don’t suppose that’s something most people would get enthusiastic about, but I’m easily excited by little things, and projects that open up space.  Getting rid of the old to allow room for the new.

Waiting and observing

Who knows where this could lead?  I might even clean out a closet or two.  That statement almost made me laugh.  With delight.  The closets around here are not as crammed and comical as Fibber McGee and Molly‘s, but give us a few more years and they might be.

Who’s in charge here?

I’ve spent the past three years choosing words to help me downsize my collection of belongings, and now suddenly, I want to do it.  Maybe all I needed was to approach it from a place of love rather than looking at it as a chore.

The glamour shot

Nature is pleased with simplicity.  And nature is no dummy.

~ Isaac Newton

Dark-eyed Junco

Well, I think that’s about it from the Bogs on this snowy January day.  The pond is solid enough for sledding or walking upon so let’s get the sleds out and go have some fun.  I’ll race you to the sledding hill.  🙂

Have a delightful weekend!

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.

~ Henry David Thoreau

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