It has been the most amazing Winter this year. Stunning really. (Don't forget, I capitalize the seasons, seeing personality in them) I have a video of the lake posted above, but not of the blizzard we had here in Michigan last night which left us buried in drifts. I believe I heard my son swearing this morning at about 4:30 when he got up to go to work and had to dig out. He drives a jeep and is proud of the fact that he can just drive over it. I take it that today that he actually had to dig through the drifts and was none too happy about it. Folks here are tired of "the white stuff" as they tend to say, but I am not.
I have never been a fan of Winter. When I lived in Abu Dhabi for three years, I never missed it one bit, but what I have hated is the cold, the dark and the grayness of it, not necessarily "the white stuff." Most winters in recent decades have been just that--grey, dark and cold, but this winter there has been so VERY MUCH SNOW and it has been SO VERY, VERY WILD that I have been mesmerized by all the power and beauty he has sent our way. Snow makes a difference in my mood. I can be a little inclined toward seasonal affective disorder, but all the brightness of the snow and that it seems to be constantly coming down, either in large, gentle serene flakes that sparkle and make me sit with a hot drink and just stare out the window for what seems like hours on end; or that comes in great, powerful blasts of white dust devils--a thousand snow queens spinning and dancing whipping up pure white dunes that cover houses and streets and bury shoveled walks in a matter of minutes. Between the gentle brightness of it and the awesome power of its storms, January has lived up to its name: Janus, the god of two faces: peace and war. He rages and roars and then he turns and lays out a landscape that is calm and pristine, bright and beautiful. I don't think I've ever known a happier or more satisfying Winter than this one.
