#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
. . . It is a joy to walk in the bare woods.
The moonlight is not broken by the heavy leaves.
The leaves are down, and touching the soaked earth,
Giving off the odor that partridges love.
~ Excerpt from “Solitude Late at Night in the Woods,” by Robert Bly
I ached to go out. Wow, what sun, what blue sky, white snow. I got out as soon as I could on my skis. So much snow and no tracks, so I made my own and went around the property by the river, it was an effort I was glad to make, my skis are made for this, cutting a trail, and my boots too, to keep my feet warm in deep snow, and my poles, too, have ice scraping ability as I had to take my skis off almost immediately to scrape away some ice that was slowing me down. The river was covered in snow. No ice to see anywhere, really. Until the brook bubbling away. When I got to Rocky Narrows there was a bit of trail cut by someone yesterday; and then that went away and I made my own over the railroad tracks until I found another skiers tracks and then I followed tracks for most of the rest of the way and backtracked through my own to home after a nice long ski. Indoors, revised some poems for a workshop on Tuesday and prepped for my two groups this week and met with Frank to go over some of the paperwork issues for the losses in the master bedroom and was delighted when he said he’d take responsibility for this because it caused him no stress and was causing me quite a bit and my heart was lighter because he said it helps him that I’m handling something else that would be causing him stress, so it all evens out. In the late afternoon before dinner I went out again to take the Special One into the snow for a bit. It’s lighter longer. We walked up the driveway and I felt, well, this is exactly where I want to be right now in this life: here, surrounded by trees thick with snow and a plowed driveway and a sun nearing the horizon and a warm house to return to and a toddler bundled in a snow suit walking along at his own pace smiling at all the snow surrounding us. The air so fresh and cool, his cheeks bright red and his freedom to move as he pleases in the white world, so many Januaries to come.