[blockquote source=”Norton Juster”]Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you’re alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully[/blockquote]

There’s a beautiful light breaking over the horizon – a crisp red against the starkness of a paled-grey winter’s sky…

And sending a most ominous warning of the storm’s imminent arrival.

As I watch others look to the sky, I can sense their unease. Something about being cut off and alone sends their hearts into a manic frenzy.

But, I quite like the solitude of a magnificent winter storm. And, I don’t at all mind this ‘being alone.’

If I do say so myself, I rather look forward to those moments – where there’s only the breath to guide me through these razor sharp winds.

And, I always find my way ‘home.’

You know, when I was a little girl, I used to spend hours alone in these woods. Just one little girl, waist deep in the snow…with never a regard for time, nor urgency…enjoying the ‘spoils’ of a vastly simplified existence.

And, still to this day…there is something about a muffled silence that brings me straight back, once again.

Isn’t it odd, that in this absolute stillness of nature we find a fullness of life unlike any we’ve ever known? An inner peace, and contentedness…a most brilliance sense of ‘belongingness’…

Sometimes, I wonder…is it the stark solitude of winter that I so very much enjoy?

Or, maybe just the ‘knowing’ that a crackling fire waits for me back home?

[blockquote source=”John Steinbeck”]What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?[/blockquote]

Indeed, perhaps, the truest joy of winter lay somewhere in that ‘in between’…?