Winter Solstice
I am standing in the kitchen winter looking out into the frigid northland I call home. I spent an hour shoveling snow this morning and then came in to thaw the extremities for a while. While at the sink drinking a glass of water, I watch a tiny chide, its feathers ruffled up against the freezing temperatures, working away on a sunflower seed. Tiny puffs of breath hang in the air as it works. It is a mystery of divine intelligence, why its tiny uncovered legs don’t freeze, yet there the little creature is, happy and contented with its little morsel of food. Thankful for anything that comes along, what a happy joyful creation.
I must admit, even in the dead of winter I love Alaska. Yesterday I was watching, Maurice, (that’s what we call him) a young local, teenage Moose, methodically chewing his way through a neighbor’s favorite bush. He may be the local darling, but he sure can clean up a nice fruit tree in short order.
What is it about this white wilderness that is so inspiring and yet forbidding. Winter in Alaska is all and more that you might think. Cold temperatures, short colorless days, and long frigid nights, I think we are through our third week of subzero temperatures, last night I froze both my hair and my eyebrows, sitting in our outdoor hot-tub watching the full Moon rise over the Chugach Mountains.
Still, there is a beauty here that is unsurpassed. The only real color in winter is the rising sun (now about 9:45 am). It spreads across the southern sky with a blaze of color and light, clinging to the horizon, it follows its brief path to the southwestern end of the Turnigan arm, and then with a glow of brilliant orange it disappears into the forbidden white foothills of the Kenai Peninsula, leaving pink-violet hues of twilight. The hoar frost is clinging to the trees these days, making each tree wear a garland of snow that gives it a white robe of purity. We walk less now, not because of the cold, but because of the brief light. Winter here seems to lend itself toward hibernation, yet the ski trails are alive with pleasure seekers and exercisers.
Our journey through life has its seasons. During the busy endless days of summer, we force the long winter into the recesses of our experience, yet they come, for without them, how could we truly appreciate the lingering warm days of summer. Accept the winter in your life graciously, embrace the joy it gives and God will grant you an inner acceptance and peace throughout life’s journey.
For every time there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven… He has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:1,11
God bless