Springtime?

 Our "Winter" snow here in Colorado often comes in March,
  The snowiest month of our Winter season that crosses into Spring.
 It did not disappoint this year.   Last week we got over a foot of snow
 with 3-4 foot drifts.  Today about 3 inches - clinging to the trees,
creating a winter wonderland, and tomorrow night another 2 inches maybe :)
  I love the snow, and this magical  season. 
  I grew up in New England and have missed the snowy winters.

Here's a short photo montage with a playful, artsy twist
at the end...

The picture above transformed into this, below, with the help of lunapic,
a photo editing website - looking like a folk art painting...

and into this - my favorite - a cosmic look...
Of course it all depends on your perspective... :)

Springtime is traditionally a time of renewal. 
but in the current zeitgeist, with yet another mass shooting, 
and the pandemic continuing, millions out of work, ongoing hatred
and racism etc., I don't see that happening until a mass shift in
human consciousness occurs which means a change in
perspective...

Winter Whammy!

Sometimes life is just "magical"!

With Winter's Whimsies arriving in April

Joy Rising...

And calm Rest...

Offering a weekend "Sabbatical"...

:)

On the Threshold of Winter...

Well actually I think we’ve crossed it.

Winter arrived this morning in all its beauty...

At least 6-8 inches of snow covered everything.

The leaves still on the trees twittered in the wind.

Evidences of an invisible hand leaving its signature behind…

~

Excerpt from: Eternal Echoes
by John O’Donohue

“Within and around us there is an invisible [Formless] world; this is where each of us comes from.  Your relationship to the invisible influences so much of your life.  When you cross over from the invisible into the physical world, you bring with you a sense of belonging to the invisible that you can never lose or cancel.  Under the guise of emptiness, the invisible keeps its secrets to itself.  Yet the invisible remains the great background.  There is always some magnet that draws your eyes to [It] or invites you to explore behind things and seek out the concealed depths.  Your longing for the invisible is never stilled.  You know that the real nature of things is hidden deep within them.  When you enter the world, you come to live on the threshold between the visible and the invisible.  You are both artist and pilgrim of the threshold…”

Strange Peace...

 A stranger arrived

this mid-winter day…

In Her presence

everything settled…

everything let go…
all resistance
all struggle

everything became still…
…inside…

everything within me rested,

not lifeless – just rested…

everything felt strangely

~ Peaceful ~

When She came

life was allowed to be as life is,

as I listened deeply to

Her whispers…

She felt ‘strange’ to me

only because She

came unexpectedly…

She is larger than life;

beyond mental understanding

or explanation…

Yet, I know that I know this “stranger.”

She is strangely familiar…

I’m sure we have met before…

I welcomed Her in...

She wrapped Her mantel of Peace

around my Heart…

The Fire-Light within began to brighten…

Love emerged…

 She was Home...

Mystic Meandering

 Feb 1, 2015

Winter's Light...

And yet, though we strain against the deadening grip
of daily necessity,
I sense there is this mystery:

All life is being lived.

Who is living it then?

Is it the things themselves,
or something waiting
inside them,
like an unplayed melody
in a flute?

Is it winds blowing over the waters?

Is it the branches that signal to each other?

Is it flowers
interweaving their fragrances,
or streets
as they wind through time…

Rainer Maria Rilke
from: Book of Hours

~*~

Yes, we are still in Winter here! J
March is our snowiest month,
along with temps in the 60’ and 70’s!

Top photo: Snow on Trees color inverted…

The photos below were taken by my husband the morning after,
out the back window...

  How magical the pristine beauty that emerged….

”The Mystery” is here,
everywhere,
in everything,

*as* everything…

In looking into “The Mystery”
there is a sense of intimacy.
There is only
deep, deep Love

reflected back…

In the deep Womb of the Heart
there is a song…
It is sung with tenderness
for every heart that aches
from its imagined separateness
from The Beloved…

Sit in deep Quiet and listen
until you hear It…

~

Verses under photos
Mystic Meandering

Snow Melt...

I am maybe one of the only ones I know that is sad to see winter leave. I am a winter lover.  In a mere 10 days it will be Spring *on the calendar.* J  Fortunately here in Colorado we continue to get snow through the month of March, and if we’re lucky into April; this year to make up for the severe drought we have been in.  We got a snow fall Saturday that was magical. I wish I had gotten pictures.  The pictures below are of the snow melt today.  Sigh…  Reminders that all things pass away; all things transition, transform into their essential nature, and the never ending cycles of life continue. J

 “I would like to live like the river flows,

carried by the surprise of my own unfolding.”

John O’Donohue

 “The same stream of life that runs through the world

runs through my veins night and day

in rhythmic measure.

It is the same life that shoots in joy

through the dust of the earth
into numberless waves…”

Rabindranath Tagore

There is a sacredness in tears.
They are not the mark of weakness,
but of power.

They speak more eloquently than
ten thousand tongues.

They are messengers….
inseparable from love…”

Washington Irving

Unconfined...

"We have not come here to take prisoners

but to surrender evere more deeply
to freedom and joy… 

We have not come into this exquisite world

to hold ourselves hostage from love.

  

Run, my dear, from anything

that may not strengthen
your precious budding wings.

  

 Run like hell, my dear,

from anyone likely to put a sharp knife
into the sacred, tender vision
of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend

those aspects…..
that stand outside of our house
and shout to our reason,
”oh please, oh please,
come out to play.”

  

 For we have not come here to take prisoners,

or to confine our wondrous spirits,
but to experience ever and ever more deeply
our divine courage, freedom and Light!"

  

Hafiz

Hafiz poem from Love Is A Place

Winter's Whimsies...

“Regard everything as transparent.
See through everything.

See that everything is in transition.

Liberate your concepts and beliefs.

Let go of the need for an “answer”,
a solution, a resolution…

Rest in the nature of Essence ~
The Primordial State of everything.

Be a child of fantasy.
Be curious instead of afraid…”


Quotes from Pema Chodron

When you can let yourself
really be
who and how
you are…
No one else
will have much
problem with it…

Practice letting yourself just BE!



Robyn Posin
For The Little Ones Inside

All life moves in cycles…

What has been
must often come apart
before what is to be
can come together…

Remember to honor
your courage
in the midst
of the
coming apart times.


Robyn Posin
For The Little Ones Inside

“What if we could really see the world
without a sense of separateness?

We must see what lies beyond
the perception of polarities…

Individuals are indivisible...
We are all “connected” through
our spacious Awareness…

Awareness is not about labeling different
”takes” on reality.
Awareness allows all ways of seeing to exist...
If you are rooted quietly in Awareness
you are fully aware of
the whole picture…”

Ram Dass
Be Love Now

“…..the deepest level of communication
is not communication, but communion.

It is wordless…

It is beyond words,
and it is beyond speech,
and it is beyond concept.

We discover we are already one.
But we imagine that we are not.

What we have to be
is what we already are…”


Thomas Merton

Winter Walks...

I wanted to share these photos from some of my walks at twilight after our first Winter morning snow; plus some taken from out the windows… The words under the photos are excerpts from a poem called Silent Retreat© by Jamie Reaser. They are used here with her permission. You can read the entire poem in context and view her poetry at Talking Waters.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Sometimes you have to go
into the thick quietude
alone

Because no one
can meet the curve
of your words…..

……only the snow knows
the story that is hidden
from the closed eyes
of the world.

This is a silent retreat


Go then, this way…


Far within the bear’s den
where you will
hear your beating heart…

Speak nothing of the Beloved


until the Beloved has

your name

Then you’ll know
emergence
is the only possibility.



~*~

Winter Blessings to all...

First Snow...

Woke up to a touch of Winter this morning, and the sound of wet snow plunking on the roof. Managed to snap these pics before rain set in melting it all away. Fall is not finished yet (as you can see by all the green still on the trees) but the first snow is always welcome here, as it signals a time for slowing down (hopefully :). There is a pull to “hibernate” – to move inward, to be still, to rest, to be in silence – to go deep and just listen…

“Winter is a time for death.
Do you think death is a bad thing?

The ultimate death is nothing to do with the body.
It is the death of your self as separate from God.
You are standing at the edge of the ocean of Love.
Plunge below the surf of separation.
Dive into the mystical depth.
Dissolve yourself into that sea.
Like a moth around a candle,
be irresistibly drawn to the light
until you are engulfed by flames
in an inferno of communion.”

Rumi

Winter's Heart Magic...

Winter left me a gift of the Heart this morning in Jack Frost's
icy artistry...

Can you see the Heart? :)

'Strange Peace'

There is a stranger that arrives sometimes
in these mid-winter days…

In Her presence
everything settles…

everything lets go…

everything becomes still…

everything rests,
not lifeless – just rests…



When She arrives
everything feels strangely

~ peaceful ~


When She comes
life is allowed to be as life is,
as I listen deeply to
Her whispers…


She feels ‘strange’ to me
only because She
has come as a surprise,
unexpected,
and is larger than life;
beyond mental understanding…

Yet, I know I know this “stranger.”
She is strangely familiar…
I’m sure we have met before…


I welcome Her in...

She gives me Her mantel of Peace
and wraps it around my heart…

The Fire-Light within begins to brighten
because She is Home...


Mystic Meandering
copyright
February 3, 2011


Photo ~ March 2010

Nannuk of the North

Yes I am Nannuk of the North these days, as we have been experiencing deep freeze weather since Sunday. Today I ventured out for the first time in as many days – the cupboards were getting slightly bare, so I got the sled dogs fired up, wrapped myself in layers and took off into the wild. Only in my imagination of course. But I like the *idea* of being a pioneering woman, venturing out into untamed territory. The dog sled was really the Subaru and I just turned the key. However, it turned over rather slowly this morning and squealed back at me for some reason, not wanting to move from its comfy garage home I guess, or maybe there are some loose belts under the hood that need tending to. So I coaxed it gently and allowed the engine to warm, then ventured out onto the snow packed street, wondering, with child-like imagination, what my adventure would be today. I discovered, once again, that I actually like this cold, crisp Arctic air! It reminded me of growing up in New England where we got lots of snow and cold when I was a child. From what I hear, from remnants of family still back there, not so much of it these days – although I think this one is headed their way. :) We didn’t get a ton of snow here in the Denver area, just enough to make it picturesque. However, they actually *did* get a ton of snow in the Mountains and on the eastern plains here. But we were spared the blizzard. It jumped over us, just leaving its calling card. And I’ve heard that my fellow bloggers living in Minnesotta, Wisconscin, and Illinois got a huge storm…

And just in case it’s not cold enough for you already :) I have sent along these wonderful photos of some beautiful Arctic Ice flows. My husband received them from a friend today. They are being passed around the internet, so you may have already seen them. I was taken by their beauty. And some are actually frozen waves that were formed because it has been so cold in the Arctic. Reports are that waves of water are actually freezing! I didn’t know that was even possible – but just take a look at these photos that captured it!

Anyway, my wish is that even in the pristine beauty of the cold and snow that I love, that all beings would find warmth for their bodies and encouragement for their hearts if they are weary, especially the homeless. I am glad to have a warm snuggly bed to crawl into each night. My pioneering spirit only goes so far ya’ know! I still want a warm bed and comfort for my heart when it is weary :) Don’t we all!

For my fellow Winter Lovers!