Welcome Winter! Welcome quiet months for reading and writing as snow chunks down on pine trees. For a teacher these are the months I look forward to, when all holiday feasting is past and focused learning stretches out in front of us, until the birds’ feather their nests and Spring Break beckons. These are quiet months made for listening. Here on the big lake we hear the cracking open of milkweed pods, the ticking steps of a freezing harbor and creaking tree boughs sagging beneath weighty crystals. Children dread going back-to-school after the holidays, but today’s icy possibilities await. Yesterday I couldn’t resist walking our dog and photographing the white-out glaze of frozen fog on barren branches, holy reminders of how God transforms everything and makes it new – even the sleepiest trees, even the saddest years. Goodbye 2020, come with sparkle fresh, white winter of new life and year.
Photo of Muir Woods, U.W. Campus, Madison WI – 1/4/2021