Winter's Wonder

The first snow of the year is always so magical.  It blankets everything with its freshness and uniformity.  For a short time, everything is clean and pure.  If the sun is out, or at night with the lights on, it sparkles.  It clings to the branches of the trees and covers the dried brown leaves scattered on the ground. 

Before most people are out and about, shoveling, snow plowing and driving through the snow, it is still perfect.  There is nothing to mar the crisp, pristine swath of white.  Bits of other colors poke out here and there, but mostly there is no color.  Just like a blank page before we start to write on it, the snow is smooth and free of markings. 

I like it best before the tire marks, shovel marks and the footprints of people upset the blanket.  Tiny hoof and paw marks only make it appear more magical.  It makes one wonder what creatures passed by and where did they go? 

Autumn is a time of rest, rejuvenation and rebirth.  Where many see winter as the death of most things, it is not.  Winter is a continuation in the evolution of life.  Seeds, plants and bulbs planted in the fall snuggle in for the long sleep they need to store up energy.  Without that long sleep, they couldn't put on their magnificent shows in spring and summer.  Sometimes that show is really worth the wait through a long, cold, snowy winter.  The start of spring is so welcome from the dreary winter weather, that it becomes even more special.  

I will remind myself the next time it snows and I am not happy that it does, why we need winter.  I will anticipate the first crocuses, daffodils and tulips that come up.  I will visualize them in my mind, growing and stretching up to feel the warm sun.  I'll look through all of the gardening catalogs that come in the next months.  I will imagine what my garden will look like in spring, in my garden of hopes and dreams.