Come alive.

In the middle of this cold and snowy February, I look out my window and every day I see people walking down the road.  They are bundled up, with hats, mittens, and other forms of warm outer wear.  They are very often carrying cross country skis over their shoulder.  At the end of our road is a cross country ski trail.  I watch them walk by and think, I should do that, and then go back to what I'm doing. 

Yesterday morning as a practice of Sabbath I bundled up, put on my boots, and carried skis to the end of my road, put them on and set out.  It was still, and so quiet.  The last time I had done this, I was 18 years old, I"m so not 18 years old anymore.  I walk these paths in the spring, summer and fall, but they look so different today.  Today there are paths groomed in all directions.  Today I am trying to listen to my body, trying to remember the lessons I learned so many years ago.  It takes a while to get the rhythm back.  It is so wonderful how the body remembers.  As I fumbled along, as I let go a bit, my body showed me what I needed to know.  

I could hear the branches creaking, the squeak of the snow under my skis, and then I look up, I see a flurry of activity.  Deer are up ahead of me.  This is their home, what am I doing here?  They frolic and play, and bound off.  

Some of the images that caught my attention are below.  Images are a way that I can share my experience when words fall short.  Images are a way we can be drawn in, in yet a new way.  What do you see?  

"God of the daylight, 

you come also in darkness,

and even in shadows

you make a home.

Be rest to the weary

and solace to the brokenhearted;

be healing to the sick,

and to the troubled, be peace.

Be our comfort, our dreaming,

our sleep, our delight;

breathe through these hours, 

O great God of night. "  

Jan Richardson