Good morning…
Before the winter storm blasted much of our country this weekend, I received the above image from Wisconsin. Inside, 60 degrees. Outside, negative 30, and that’s without windchill! “What does negative 30 actually feel like?” I wondered.
Then the winter weather arrived, and images came blowing in from family and friends. A shiny hard layer of ice blanketed Atlanta, and our young adult kids woke to a delightful dusting of snow in Athens, Georgia.
“Snow, snow, and more snow on the way,” came reports from Ohio. By 9:00 am, I heard from Pennsylvania, “We have about 4 inches, and it’s supposed to snow all day. I’ve already shoveled once, and I’ll probably do so every couple hours to stay in front of it.”
Our family’s winning snowfall came from Steve’s 95 year old mom in rural PA. “12 inches as of now, and still coming,” she texted around 5:00 pm Sunday night. Eventually, 17 inches of snow were recorded at our family’s favorite summertime vacation spot.
I love these images falling beside quotes from this week’s reading from Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. As you read these bullet points, slowly and out loud, please sense which quotes, phrases, or words pique your own interest. Take time to notice, to ponder, to breathe in the gift.
- I’ve been feeling the coming of winter in my bones. (35)
- We are cold and tired, and slightly anxious about the cost of everything. (36)
- …a hot bath. The contrast between the outside air and the water is thrilling. (37)
- I’m not the only one who has forgotten how to rest. (37)
- We feel warmer for knowing that it’s freezing outside. (38)
- That’s what you learn in winter: there is a past, a present, and a future. There is a time after the aftermath. (38)
- In moments of helplessness, I always travel up north. (38)
- I love the revolutions that winter brings. (39)
- I wonder if there’s any room left for recovery at all. We are either off or on. (39)
- You might as well enjoy these things. You never know what’s around the corner. (39)
- I put myself to bed. (40)
- It is a simple, known thing. It will pass. (40)
- I’m also being forcibly reminded that this is some kind of a gateway into a new phase in my life. (40)
- Life is clearly teaching me some kind of lesson, but I can’t decipher it yet. I’m worried that it’s about doing less, staying at home and giving up on adventures for a while. That’s not something I want to learn. (41)
- All this life – all this survival – in the deepest cold. (43)
- I want to winter in the cold, embrace the changes it brings, acclimatise. (43)
- I’m certain that the cold has healing powers that I don’t yet come close to understanding. After all, you apply ice to a joint after an awkward fall. Why not do the same to a life? (43)
- The sauna has an almost spiritual significance in the Finnish psyche, acting as a place of relaxation and retreat, particularly in those winter months… The sauna is seen as essential, like a bathroom or kitchen. (44)
- “It’s a calm time,” Hanne said, “a family time. You experience a clearing of the mind in sauna.” … in sauna, rather than in the sauna. She’s not talking about a building, a little pine shed with burning coals in the corner; she’s talking about a state of being. “All the decisions are made there,” she said. (45)
- “Until very recently, the sauna hosted the entire life cycle. The whole run, from birth to death, is still symbolically there, brought close by winter.” (45)
- Perhaps it takes a lifetime to acclimatise. Perhaps I need to feel the true cold before I can warm up again. (51)
He launches his promises earthward—
how swift and sure they come!
He spreads snow like a white fleece,
he scatters frost like ashes,
He broadcasts hail like birdseed—
who can survive his winter?
Then he gives the command and it all melts;
he breathes on winter—suddenly it’s spring! (Psalm 147:15-18, MSG).
If you were to pick one photo, one bullet point, and one word from this Scripture, how might they shape your deepest prayers today?
…Sue…
