Winter's Inspiration

The thing about winter is this: 

When all looks asleep or dead, even - life lies waiting, just beneath the surface.  The energy, tucked beneath a blanket of snow, is abuzz just inches beneath the frozen crust of the earth and is growing each day, until that day when it breaks free from Winter's bonds and brings forth new life.   There has been no winter that was not followed by spring.  Spring relies upon Winter, as Summer on Spring.

I love the austere beauty of this time of year.  From inside warm outerwear, I embrace the cold on my cheeks and in my lungs and am thankful that I can experience this world in such sharp contrasts.

I refuse to see winter as an imposition, for without this...

there would be no this!

Isn't there something about snow that takes us back to our childhood?  To memories of sledding and snow forts and snowball battles... soggy woolen mittens with frozen fingers tucked inside...rosy cheeked smiles staring up at the sky from angels fashioned beneath... the warm treats that awaited inside the house... so many wonderful memories.

 And though this time of year brings with it hard work...

I choose to lose myself in the beauty and the memories it inspires.