SoulePapa Blogs :: Act Global Think Loco

Mid - Winter.  Snow, freeze, sun, melt, rain, freeze, snow, sleet, melt ... repeat!! 
It's a cruel lesson in expectations and reality.  Spring too far off to ponder and winter too long to believe.  Waking up in darkness so cold it freezes your heart and slows your brain.  The heat sneaks past a veil of clouds and warms your cheeks for a brief glimpse of how things could be if only...if only you lived. SOMEPLACE. ELSE. 

Wood stoves, furnaces, car heaters, bundled children, shovels, plows, ice, sand trucks, scraping windshields, running noses, frozen toeses. 

All that winter fun, so wondrous in those early days of snow,  loses its luster and seems like so much effort for the brief moments of joy it now brings.  Digging deeply into the recesses of your brain to retrieve that scrap of memory which you will drain for all its comfort and hope.  Beach sand.  Bicycles.  Warm Breeze.  You strain to imagine.

Holding tight to that last tattered shred of sanity.  Keeping that warm glint of resolve in your eye.  Letting that icy realization pass over you that this season of darkness will continue.

We move on and scour the horizon for those bits of light.

Man, I love Winter and its challenge to us that we find it's beauty.  Wherever we can.

Comments

[kat]

wow. your moon pictures are amazing! it was an incredible moon last night, wasn't it? thank you so much for sharing the beauty you found amongst the cold of winter. i know it may seem ridiculous to you, but oh how i would love even just a few inches of snow down here in north carolina. our long hot humid summers drag on like your winters - maybe we can trade a month of each?
thanks for the guest appearance - its always nice to hear from you!

[emily]

a beautiful ode to the month of february, i think. and your photos are stunning!

[colleen]

amen, brother.

[Qalballah]

Cant wait til spring.

[Jenny]

I've been feeling this way recently too!

[Farmeress...]

I love this! with you on the loco part in COLD upper michigan! hang on....

[Caren]

I love the harsh beauty of winter. As someone who struggles with depression, the drawing inward of winter, and waiting for spring feel deeply appropriate to me, and remind me of the cyclical nature of my own being.

Those moon pictures are incredible! Mine didn't come out at all! And wasn't the air breathtakingly beautiful last night?

[Katie]

I love when SoulePapa blogs...very inspirational and great pictures!!!!

[liza]

You need family in Florida--then you can visit just long enough to WANT to go back home to the end of winter... or, that's what I do ;)

Beautiful pictures! To match the beautiful words, thank you.

[Sonya]

Steve, just come to Iceland, to see what darkness is about.
I bet you are going to love your Maine winter afterwards :)

[SOULEPAPA]

Kat - I'll trade you a month anytime - It's that last month that gets you!

Sonya - I'd love to spend a winter in Iceland!
I'm not sure how many though ;}

[jen]

Yes, we watched the eclipse and I tried to take good pictures. It was spectacular. Winter is a beautiful time of year...but we get restless at the end of it.

[Paige]

Thanks for those awesome pics of the eclipse - we're here in Minneapolis, and last night hubby and son took a blanket out to the front yard and laid down on the snow to watch the event, sub-zero temps and city lights be darned!

[sara jane]

Thanks! I really needed that right about now.

[Shari R]

That was lovely. Thank you for the pictures since we were fogged in on the central Cali coast.

[Wendy]

Thanks for the gorgeous pics (and words). It was cloudy here last night, so we didn't see anything.

And I appreciate your winter posts; no matter how cold it is in Colorado, it's colder in Maine. :)

[missy]

great pictures! it stormed here last night so, i missed it :(

thanks for sharing......

blessings,
missy

[katie]

wow, love the moon images. and the wintry words. they're perfect together.

[Leah]

It is amazing to think that all of us in our different locations were all doing the same thing last night. Bundled in blankets gazing at the same sky to see this awesome event.

[Ellie Waldron]

Wow - this speaks to so many of us this year! I happened to blog along those very same lines yesterday. (even including eclipse photos!) Thanks for the post!

[heather, whatchabuildin]

Beautiful words of Winter love. I live in Vermont and can totally relate. It was -1 degree this morn...The eclipes was just beautiful last night wasn't it? Winter beauty is everywhere.

April is the hard time for me. Vermont's 5th season...mud season! The in-between time of spring and winter...can't wear Teva's yet and can't get out of the muck boots yet! Sweater? T-shirts? Oh, what to wear?? Oh, May! Please arrive!

[coffeechris]

Heard there might be a guest blogger. Thank you for your extraordinary pictures. I was outside in the snowy-cold Midwest watching the experience. The sky and stars were a performing in honor of the eclipse. Your words mirror my feeling, exactly, thanks for the Soulpappa soulmate.

[Elizabeth]

Beautifully expressed. Thanks SoulePapa.

[cloth.paper.string]

yes, yes. superb reflections on the cruelest part of the longest. here on the north shore of lake superior it's -15F today (-45 if you count the windchill). watching the eclipse last night was a powerful reminder that someday, maybe even soon, the sun will return.

[Oliver Rain]

Wonderful pictures. I think all of us blogger here in the Northern hemisphere have pretty much had it with winter. We were also outside enjoying the eclipse last night. I know this is totally cliche, but isn't it wonderful that no matter where we live, we all see the moon every night.

[Five Flowers/ Emily]

lovely images! and a great post:: i dont live in the snow, but i did in college, adnd i remember the spring anticipation... enjoy the change of seasons!

[Deardeedle]

So poetic! Thanks for capturing the eclipse that I missed after falling asleep too early AND for blogging. YOU ROCK SOULEPAPA!

[april m]

It's like you're looking reading my mind, man!

Brown melty snow, black ice, hurt me!

[The Simple Family]

Just remember...that summer you speak of? Lasts nine months where I live. Nine months of 90+ temperatures and extremely high humidity. Oh, and mosquitoes.

I envy your snow from a distance though I do remember how annoying it can be.

[nicola]

welcome back soulepapa! I have been feeling quite miserable about February this week - this post was much needed :)

[lizziemarie]

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for echoing my sentiments about this frigid and seemingly never ending, Winter. We only just glimpsed the beginning of the eclipse when cloud cover rolled in and with it more icy weather. We are alive under the frozen earth waiting to burst forth.

[tricia]

Wonderful.

[tricia]

Wonderful.

[jessie]

Wow. I guess the grass is always greener. There are some of us who enjoy long, cold, and frozen winters as opposed to spring flowers. I feel very content and inspired by our Minnesota winters. It seems your family is sometimes frustrated with the weather of where you live? So many posts dedicated to the frustrations of winter. It may be better for you to live somewhere where the weather better suits your desires and lifestyles:)

[Alicia A.]

Wow.

[Tamara Marwood]

We are the opposite here - we are looking so forward to the end of summer and our winter - and also for the end of day light saving - the days are SO very long!

[Maria]

Okay you had me until that last part that starts with " Man, I love winter..." I was more into the part that said (to paraphrase) "It's great at first..."

Your pics are great! We missed it. Totally missed it. Because we were ensconced in layers of warm blankets, toasty in our wee little beds. Dreaming of spring.

[Ayla]

It just started raining here again too and I'm afraid we'll get more snow before it's all said and done so I'm feelin' ya. :) I love the pics btw!

[Rubyellen]

It was too cloudy here that we couldn't see it. I wanted to capture some moon pictures. Yours are lovely!

[Stephanie]

I wanst able to see the moon last night here, it was too cloudy. Your pics are great!!

[Readersguide]

Great photos -- and what a metaphor!

[Allegra]

great moon pics!

[leslie]

we get just a taste of snow when we go to our cabin a couple times a month during the winter, i bet it can be hard to do your everyday things in the snow and cold for months on end. i so love the cold rainy drizzly days so much though, wish we had more of it here in southern california. luckily this winter has been wetter than usual, some winters are so hot and dry the season seems to pass by without a noticeable change. i love to watch the seasons change on all the east coast blogs and wish i could move to YOUR neck of the woods someday!

:)

[Diana]

Hi Soule Papa! We missed you.
I came to Maine almost 3 years ago, basically because I fell in love with this place. And I visited in winter, I could have decided not to take my job... but I just love love love it. Winter in Maine has made me a stronger and wiser person!

[Julie Roth]

EXQUISITE. YOU ARE A GEM!

[diXymiss]

eXactly!

[Qalballah]

Who the hell likes winter Jessie? Especially with kids bouncing off walls 24/7.

[Lisa Z]

Beautiful photos. Thanks for keeping us soule-fed, SoulePapa!

Lots of Minnesotans commenting today. We are in Central MN and had a spectacular view out the front windows. DD was asleep and DH, DS and I were too cozy inside to venture out. But we could hear neighbors outside, brave souls at 10 below F.

[Heather]

These photos are amazing as are your thoughts. While you're hunkered down with the kids check out this site http://www.forests-forever.com/ and go to "forest gallery." My husband, an arborist, was sent this link and we have spent hours enjoying it. A Japanese photographer was commissioned to take pictures of forests around the world. It will take your breath away... and the kids will love it.

[SOULEPAPA]

Glad to see so many of you enjoying (or at least braving) the elements last night to catch the eclipse. now THAT'S what i'm talking about!!