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

11.17.2011
























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}

11 comments:

Sy said...

stunning pictures, there's a really beautiful ethereal quality to them

kylie said...

beautiful, reminds me of late nights coming home after a day of skiing in idaho. beautiful. by the way - i LOVE that quote about the snow acting as a quilt. so beautiful.

**!!! whoa!!! my word verification is "sking," .. meant to be

onesilentwinter said...

beautiful ann marie, i try not to wish for anything being content where i am but then i come here and i feel as i want to be there!

The Egg said...

finally, winter is here!

xo the egg out west.

Anita said...

There are not words adequate enough to describe how lovely this is! Thank-you so much for sharing such beauty with us.

tinyparticlesoflight said...

I love the way the creek peeks through the snow - everything looks magical.

xo
cortnie

Anonymous said...

Stunning pictures, wonderful words!

Lorena said...

beautiful photographs and words...I'm a new follower of your blog and it's lovely!

Ginny said...

I just love your blog Ann Marie, the pictures and the words are just so beautiful. I always look forward to whatever you might have next.

sarah said...

beautiful, beautiful, the whole thing. the way you write, the pictures you take. the whole weblog.

Courtney said...

Incredibly gorgeous, both the photos and the writing.