I Never Thought I Would Say This, BUT...

I have been enjoying this winter. (Quick, check his temp. He must be sick.)

 


No, in reality I am looking forward each week to the weekend trek in the snow on my good, ol', made in the USA Redfeather snowshoes.

I missed a week being sick, but last Sunday I was out there again.

I am developing a real sense of awe for what is out there in the woods of Whitewater State Park. It is not dull and boring under some layers of white. There are still lines and shapes. Shadows become shades of gray. Picnic tables become snow platforms. Brown in the trees comes alive.





Then there's the ice. This is the now frozen surface of a waterfall from a dam that two weeks ago was still flowing. A quick look misses the artistry of ice and snow, air bubbles and developing icicles. A walk along the bank gets one close enough to stop and admire it, like a Van Gogh.


All in all, though, the water does not stop. It still riffles and flows; it still gets louder when crossing rocks and silent in the calm and quiet stretches.


In water is life, of course. It is the fluid of movement and change; of refreshment and renewal; of power and destruction. It is, they say, the universal solvent. Though not a perfect one- it moves slowly, eating away in geologic time- it is the solvent that makes life possible.

Even in the frozen state of winter.