Glittery Snow Magic
Co-creating in Winter in Maine
After an overnight snowfall everything is covered in a few inches of cold fluffy white. It’s the type of snowfall that comes with little wind, allowing branches to drape, highlighted where the coefficient of friction is right at the angle of repose. That is to say, the snow has piled as high as it can on the surface of everything before it falls off branches to the ground. Generally speaking, anyway, and a lot of that landscape changes when the sun rises higher in the sky. Warmer temperatures and increasing wind become variables that inevitably change the entire experience.
The beauty of being outside during the early hours of the day in fresh snow is that those variables, and many others haven’t arrived yet. There is a still quiet in the trees, a crisp and cold freshness to the air. The wind drifts ever so gently through branches, inviting individual snowflakes to dance with it in the morning sunlight. Flecks of snow dazzle in rays of sun like diamonds shimmering everywhere the light touches. The air that touches the light shimmers too. Immediate beauty is in every breath, every glance in every direction. It’s only about five inches of snow. And it is life changing. This video may not give the visual effect intended, but the magic is there.
The snow cover illuminates every movement of every land-dwelling critter. It’s full-blown honesty, a very real account of who has been where, and exactly how they got there. Every step, every hop, leap or limp foot completely identifiable by its track in the snow.
The cold forces trees and plants to go inward and focus on the roots. Some branches and blooms die off as the cold seeps in. Limbs that no longer serve the health of a tree become weak and are broken off in storms.
In the human psyche, we can winter too. We can go inward, focus on the roots and identify the branches we’ve grown, the ones we’ve outgrown, and we can let the storms of life trim away what no longer serves. We can look behind us to see our tracks of how we got to where we are. We can also look ahead to see where we might go. A deep cover of snow in mid-winter is a beautiful landscape to take stock of where we are at and to dream big and imagine our next steps.
When the sun comes out and the wind picks up, the experience changes. And we carry the memory of the gifts of winter, the magic we feel and see. We’ve chosen our next steps, being able to see and imagine our path. And we hold that vision in our hearts, knowing our purpose and feeling the excitement of the journey ahead.
Any time that we need, we can revisit that magical snow globe moment. We can let the air glitter in the sun. Despite the big waves I can feel coming, I refuse to sink. I rise above, high and dry on the crest of greatness.
And so it is.
Onward!
T