The bright light that shines through my window on a mid-February day looks so deceiving.  It beckons me outside, as though it’s a hot sunny day, when really, when I step out into it,  the frigid blasts of the winter air and the blustering winds chill my cheeks and begin to freeze my uncovered fingertips.  The light is so beautiful though, I just can’t help going out to frolic in winter’s halo.  My dogs can’t help it either, as they begin running in circles, making their own race tracks in the freshly fallen snow.

I always try to capture the sparkles that glisten within the thick, white blanket that covers the mountains this time of year, but I never quite can.  They’re like tiny, elusive diamonds coating the ground, giving the frosty cold a glimmering hope of brightness.   I especially love taking walks in the shiny winter magic, my feet heavily step over the snow hurdles and my face feels the secret sun beaming down on it.  I am cold, yet content in my wanderlust as I step out into the stark and ethereal landscape of winter.

The picture-perfect, shiny glory of the snow isn’t the only thing that gives winter its halo.  These frigid months are a sacred time for me, a time when everything slows down, and takes a moment to refresh, even the earth.  It’s a time where we can all take a moment to enjoy the silent stillness before springtime moves in and captures us with her different, more colorful, beauty.

– Willow Ferguson, HashtagWV #139. February 2022. Read more of Willow’s writing at willowgraceferguson.com