Nature Journaling in the Snow...

Looking back into my study as dawn breaks

First light and the first sight out my window are white snowflakes blanketing the ground in softness. Like a kid, a kid’s first snow of the year I race to bundle up to get out there and enjoy. Yes! It smells like winter as I leave the house. What causes that smell I wonder? That cold, crisp, fresh indescribable smell. As I depart the house, I am met with whiteness all around, flakes falling in earnest. I grab my clipboard, my chair, let the dog out and head to a corner of the yard to reflect and journal under the protective canopy of a tree. Hoping the wet from the flakes won’t interfere with my writing.

Winter is on its way

 All is still and quiet and aside from my pen freezing up with which I have since replaced with a pencil, all is good. The sun has not yet fully shown itself or maybe it won’t on this gray overcast day. I feel like I’m young again and the thought of it brings tears to my eyes. The idea that I can return to my childhood by doing something as simple as hanging out in the snow. The sky has that distinctive – it’s gonna snow all day kind of look – though I know it won’t because soon we will cross over the 32 degree mark and all these beautiful flakes will turn to rain.

I have journaled in the winter before but never with wet flakes coming down upon my paper and never with a pencil which feels as stubborn as the pen. But I press on. It is so amazingly quiet, the snow creating a blanket that muffles all noise. Here beside me is a tree, half fallen down, caught up in the crook of a nearby tree and I can’t help but see myself as that strong sturdy tree, holding up those I’ve known in my life who have needed supporting. It can be hard to hold up an almost downed tree. Hard to be the strong one. But I have been the falling tree too in my life and was thankful to have a sturdy tree catch me on the way down as well. We all play both these roles for one another. Strong one minute, in need of help the next. This back and forth, ebb and flow of life. And it is quite possible also to be both strong and in need of support at the same time. Strong in some areas, weaker in others. Sometimes remembering your strong qualities when you are feeling in need helps you dig yourself out of a rut. This is what the natural world is telling me on this fine winter filled day.

Dakoka 

 I am wearing mittens with all the fingertips removed which is great in that these gloves allow for the majority of my hand to stay warm while writing, but what about my poor fingertips? Not too sure about this invention. I have seen mittens with little flaps that allow for the fingers you are not using to be covered. Now that would be a better choice I think. My brown dog Dakota is laying in the snow looking at me and wondering what the heck I am doing. Stepping into the reverence of nature I’d tell her. Communing with the divine. For me God – or the term I use instead Gaia, Mother Earth – resides in everything and the way to be closest to Gaia and receive her wisdom is to spend time in her lap. Out in the bosom of nature. So here I sit. Essentially allowing a spiritual experience to unfold while sitting with nature.

I can hear the snow falling, dropping on the colored fallen leaves around me. Geese in the background are calling – probably telling one another it is time to get the show on the road and head south. A small chickadee is silently flitting behind me from branch to branch. I am writing these words on the blank backside of an old bank statement destined for the shredder. What is money when one can have all this beauty at their disposal? I can smell the pines I am sitting amongst, enveloping me in their scent, an embrace of sorts.

The snow is increasing in its intensity and making its way onto my paper, large wet drops hindering my progress. I will sit awhile yet and then make my way back inside to wake up my son and his dog so they too can enjoy this beauty.

Finnigan