an early morning spent in the silence that is a beautiful white winter

there is a quiet and powerful magic that resides at dawn in the wintry mountains.

truly winter is a miraculous gift that slows us down as its silence

forces us to look around us, and take deep breaths.

how can one hurry through something so still?

everything has begun to sleep, to rest;

and the only thing to really soak in is how the light of the moon and sun

touch everything beneath them, and the sight of your own frozen breath.

it certainly slows one down to a place where life is all that you are concerned with.

mortality. how incredibly profound this life is. it's perfect.

we rose early. before the sun was up. bundled and hesitant.

the car finally stopped mid-way up the canyon,

and we all resolved to keep going; to get out of the car,

change comfy boots for stiff boots, 

hats and headlamps on as we started our own individual

versions of a "got-to-keep-warm-or-i'll-never-do-this-again" jig.

once we were on the trail we reacquainted ourselves with muscles

we haven't used all summer; our mouths became silent other than

heavy exhales as we climbed on our skis to get our heart rates up.

this was a training morning...a morning to get ready for when

more snow comes and the temperatures drop lower still.

i finally pulled out my camera after thirty minutes of skinning

as the sun was finally starting to creep up the mountain.

i became slower. stopping every little bit to capture this icy beauty.

we turned around and made our way back to the car.

our mouths began to talk again as the spell of silence lifted.

and now i am slowly drinking some warm spiced milk,

and looking forward to yoga tonight to stretch these muscles of mine.

looking forward to winter in all its stillness.

{p.s. found this little video of snow falling via modern hepburn. can't wait for the next snow storm}