Thoughts, Reflections and Snow Showers

A few days before the big Wisconsin blizzard, there was a beautiful, fluffy snow that surprised us.

We've been waiting and waiting for the pretty white stuff.  Not everyone wants snow around here. But I can barely get into the holiday spirit until I see snow. So I ran out into it on my lunch hour.

I dug my hands into it. I made a snowball. I took pictures of the snow-encrusted trees hanging over the river. I shivered. I breathed in that cold, snowy air.  I felt pretty alive, actually.

What a strange week it has been. When tragedy strikes, I seek out the words of others, looking for wisdom or understanding or some way to wrap my mind around it all. In reading and watching all of the tributes to the Sandy Hook families, the words of Mr. Rogers struck a chord.

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of "disaster," I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world."

---posted from the Fred Rogers website http://www.fci.org/new-site/par-tragic-events.html

The father of one of the little victims offered forgiveness to the shooter's family. I found this to be an extraordinary act. I continue to think about his ability to express this sentiment in the midst of his own massive grief. Though I'm not a parent, I have children in my life I care very much about. Everyone does. My heart broke for him as he talked about his daughter. In the words of Mary Oliver, "Make of yourself a light..." (The Buddha's Last Instruction)

I walked around the gardens, tromped through the snow and thought about all of the helpers. People who are there when you need them and even when you don't.

The day that winter really came to Wisconsin, the weather was so blustery that I did not leave the house.  My husband came into the bedroom at 6am and announced that my workplace had closed. Let the hibernation begin. There was a dutch baby for breakfast, a fire in the fireplace, Scrabble with my husband, an afternoon movie and a decadent 4pm glass of wine. I watched the snow fall outside and felt grateful for it all.

Nature is such a comfort during uncertain times.

First Snow

The snow
began here
this morning and all day
continued, its white
rhetoric everywhere
calling us back to why, how,
whence such beauty and what
the meaning; such
an oracular fever! flowing
past windows, an energy it seemed
would never ebb, never settle
less than lovely! and only now,
deep into night,
it has finally ended.
The silence
is immense,
and the heavens still hold
a million candles, nowhere
the familiar things:
stars, the moon,
the darkness we expect
and nightly turn from. Trees
glitter like castles
of ribbons, the broad fields
smolder with light, a passing
creekbed lies
heaped with shining hills;
and though the questions
that have assailed us all day
remain — not a single
answer has been found –
walking out now
into the silence and the light
under the trees,
and through the fields,
feels like one.

--Mary Oliver

Happy Winter Solstice, everyone. I'm contributing over at Shutter Sisters today. Check it out.

http://shuttersisters.com/home/2012/12/22/weekending-by-polly-scott.html