Advice from a mountain

Reach new heights.

There is beauty as far as the eye can see.

Be uplifting.

Get to the point.

Climb beyond your limitations.

Life has its ups and downs.

Enjoy the view.

~ Ilan Shamir

In the Colorado Snow

Walking home under the northern lights

You could see clear across the world to the other side

And the snow fell so still like music to the ground

And I'd take refuge in that holy sound.

(from Jennifer Berezan's "Refuge")

We got about ten inches of snow over the past 24-hours, so school was canceled for the day. That meant that my appointments were all rescheduled, and Brian stayed in to work from home. This also meant that Bosco got to spend some time watching us wrestle with the layer covering the driveway and sidewalk, which entertained him much more than us.

After a couple of weeks wishing we could move past the bitter cold and into spring, this shock of winter has reminded me of the joy that we find in snuggling in for a day to watch the peaceful world blanketed in white outside.

There is Deep Rest Here

As we celebrate this longest night and welcome the return of the light, I want to share a beautiful poem we featured in our concerts last weekend. Preparing to end 2013 and begin the new year, the Solstice is always an apt time to release any negative energies that have built up and focus on finding peace and joy to center myself. I wish you and yours the deep peace that is unique to this season.

I Have Found A Winter
I have found a winter in me
that before I kept at bay.
It whispers within
reminding me to calm
and come inside.

While I am mad for spring
and thrill to every fall, now I slow
and settle into winter's bare blanket.
There is deep rest here,
a quieting of the soul.
Threads frayed and severed, mend,
and even the cold silent days
spin dreams.
Candles cup their slender brave flames
for all the world a fire in the night.

Though the stern insistent business of schedules
stamps its foot, demanding we not look away,
the winter within hopes that we will.
That we will not turn
from its invitation to calm, to rest
to remember what we know
and to wonder, wait, and listen
for what we do not.

From Along the Way, New and Selected Poems by Linda Millemann.