This time of year is a frenzy. And this year, in particular, I feel I have way more to do then I will ever be able to manage.
Slowly, I am learning to simplify and to rethink things and to remember that I am in charge of my own time.
This picture reminds me of taking time. I took this photo many years ago of my husband and son on the shores of Lake Superior one crisp January day. I captured that moment of peace and solitude which today seems so distant in my unending tasks of things I think I “should” do.
I can feel the intensity all around me these days right before Christmas. I yearn to be on the shore of Lake Superior and find that slowness that isn’t always present in my daily life.
I know it is in my power to change that. Although I can’t be at the North Shore right now, I can slow my pace. I can take a long walk with my dog, catch a glimpse of the silvery moon and watch the birds hover above the river. Everything I need to slow down is right in front of me.
To quote a poem by Robert Frost:
Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
And I can take it all in with a deep breath.
A photo is worth a thousand words but so is a feeling.
We have only this moment, sparkling
like a star in our hand
—and melting like a
snowflake.
—Francis Bacon
