Snow days and the importance of letting yourself be

I've always enjoyed a good snow day.  I like the idea of everything slowing down. I like how quiet it gets and how the familiar gets cloaked in white, allowing one to see it in a totally different perspective.  Most of all I like the stillness of it all.  Living in the fan you can always tell who decided they weren't going to drive or go to work by the layers of snow on all the cars.  I find this to be very calming.  

One of my favorite things to do is to go drive places in the snow.  Just to see everything in it's moment of winter culmination.  With all this snow we've had I try to make it to the woods.  It's quite stunning:

I think what I love most about all of this is that everything just is.  The trees don't complain, the river doesn't get anxious, the trail isn't bothered by the snow.  They're all just in their moment.

This is the point where I become quiet.  And I don't really notice it.  So often there is the tendency to feel like there isn't enough time or enough isn't being done and I lose my moments being consumed by those things.  Doing.  Always doing but not necessarily accomplishing.  I want for more of the quiet of being and It seems so elusive at times.  Then there are times when it is right there, familiar and loved, like a worn book you've read dozens of times.

Then there is the state of becoming aware of these moments of being and trying to hold onto it rather than just let it be.  In trying to hold on to these these things I find this is where I suffer- probably where many people suffer.  I aspire to be more like the trees- bending in the breeze, bathing in the rain, and being patient under a blanket of snow.  Continually growing and present with all of the elements in their world all while being deeply rooted.

There were deer out today.  I'm sure they are out everyday but they are especially conspicuous in the snow.  I really wanted a picture, because seeing deer running through the snow doesn't happen in my world as often as I'd like.  They are fast.   I walked some more.  After awhile there was a deep moment of stillness and this happened:

Ethel and Geraldine.  And then they were gone.  Apparently Thursdays is bingo day at Pony Pasture...

Moments and being and snow days.  Doing is important but if it's a full time job then you miss all the nuanced bits of your world and life becomes extremely uncomfortable.  It's a beautiful thing to slow down and surrender to those moments.