Have you Been Here?

I was thinking about a lot of things last night in the hours that droned on before I finally fell to sleep. Two of them were this- One of the most calming sounds on earth is the sound of the wind blowing through pines. When I was young, our family would venture to the forest to cut our winter firewood. Scouting down a Tamarack Tree and falling it with a chain saw. Pulling it from the muddle of other trees with a chain hooked to the truck- you don't know how many of those chains we snapped-can you say Holy Dangerous!! Us kids would mark the lengths of the logs to be cut with giant red chalk and the older folks would get to chopping and cutting and finally loading the wood into the truck beds. Meanwhile, we ran and played freely in the forest...would I let my kids do this? I'm not so sure. Anyways, the sound of the wind in the trees has always been comforting and enormous to me. Enormous in the nature sense...like, "Wow, it's so peaceful out here- who else just sits to listen to the grandness of it all?"

If you're a snowboarder (or skier) you've probably experienced the same thing. Next time you're up there, stop somewhere off the beaten path away from other people (maybe in the trees with some deep fresh Pow Pow) and listen.

Secondly, watching the falling snow is peaceful, calming, and nostalgic for me. Even when I was little it brought on feelings of nostalgia. What did I have to feel nostalgic about in 2nd grade I'll never know. But, I can remember watching the snow fall outside the windows of my second grade class at Lena Whitmore Elementary School and feeling a longing yet peacefulness all in one. Maybe I was just longing for recess so I could go out and play...

Either way, I am in love with the winter. I miss it.