“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit,
and resign yourself to the influences of each.
Let them be your own diet, drink, and botanical medicines.”
Henry David Thoreau
I’ve never been a big fan of Winter. Well…. I like parts of Winter. I love cozying up to the fire, sipping hot chocolate, scouring through garden magazines and catalogs, and dreaming of warmer weather. But Winter– blustery, bitter, toes-and-fingers-numbing, how many more hours of shoveling snow- Winter? Not so much.
This year, I pledged to be different. This winter I resolved to “live in the season as it passes,” not merely bide time until my beloved Spring heralds Her return with her intoxicating Lilac, seductive Iris, stately Allium.
The past two days afforded me opportunity to practice this art of being present. Ohhhhh I sipped some serious hot chocolate, and the piles of garden magazines are piled by my bedside waiting for a late night rendezvous. But today I resigned myself to the “influences of each.”
Late morning I ventured out with camera in tow. The newly fallen snow coated the ground like icing atop the most beautifully decorated wedding cake, teasing me to reach down for a taste of frosty sweetness. The tree branches and remnants of summer’s gardens were laden with glitter promising a exquisite show as I meandered along field and woodland. As I peered through my lens I saw beauty.
Spring will come soon enough. With it will come an overabundance of duties required to facilitate Nature’s magnificent masterpiece. But for now, I will choose to let Nature present her beauty unencumbered. And as She does I shall breathe the air. drink the drink and resign myself to the influence of this most special gift.
