Trying to Love Winter

In every winter's heart there is a quivering spring. 

And behind the veil of each night there is a smiling dawn.

-Kahlil Gibran

I have tried gallantly this winter to accept and embrace this season. 
This season that shuts me inside for too long a time. 
It is that time when cabin fever, or worse, the winter blues, has set in. 
I feel I can take no more of the grey days, the white ground, the confinement to the house because of hazardous driving conditions. 
I feel so alone. So desolate. 
Turning to the words of poets, I am comforted to learn that I am not alone. 
Despair from long dark days can only be overcome by believing and anticipating that spring will be here soon. 
Why do I feel I cannot lament? 
Because I don't like listening to others complain?  
Because when I do, someone is quick to correct me and to tell me to look at the positive? 

Now I must search myself for the quivering spring that is inside me. 
If I continue to live in this winter in my heart, I will become so cold and brittle. 
I feel that beginning. 
It is time to melt my inner snow and let the buds begin to open.

The God Who is Everywhere

"While it is true that God is a hidden presence, we have only to let nature speak to us about the God who is everywhere." 

- John Eudes, Abbot of the Genesee, 

as quoted by Henry Nouwen in Discernment

My first thought on reading this was that if this is true, then God is more present in some places than in others. For instance, in areas south - especially Florida and the Caribbean - where the weather is always wonderful, there is always an abundance of green, flowers, animals, birds and insects. What about in areas like here in New England during winter? All is bare or dull. There is wildlife but it can be sparse. What about in Alaska? What about in cities? Especially cities in the north during winter time.

Alaska, though frigid cold and covered in deep snow most of the year,  has a majestic quality that does reflect God. Not having been there in person, photographs and movie footage alone have shown me this. 

God can be found  in the city, but there he is discovered more often through people than in nature. Yet even a dandelion growing in the crack between foundation and sidewalk can point to God.

Winter in New England can teach us about rest and slowing down. A valuable lesson for so many who live by the "New York minute."

God is everywhere and I think that if we love where it is we live, we will find him in everything.

I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” 

- Lewis Carroll

Monthly Garden Photos - February 2014

Here is the last set of monthly garden photos for the blog challenge 12 Months in View. There is approximately 30 inches of snow in these photos. We had four snowfalls in two weeks time.

The Enclosed Garden

Birdbath pedestal in the Perennial Border

notice the bench

outside Wisteria Studio

The Family Pond and Wetlands

White on White on White - A Winter's Silence

View through the dining room windows this morning.