I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields that it kisses them so gently. -- Lewis Carroll
In different times and places, clouds can produce snowflakes, raindrops, or even hailstones. Each one seems to have its own purpose and mood as it falls from the sky. The snowflake is the lightest of these, and so it falls slowly and softly. Rainfall can be soft or hard. It sometimes feels angry, almost cleansing.
No matter how thick the snowfall is, it is still soft. We can rarely hear it land. It covers the world in a peaceful white. If we look closely, we can see that each small snowflake is unique.
Like the snowflakes, each of us has a unique design. Perhaps what we can learn from the snowflakes is how to gently touch the lives and growing things around us. Times of anger and rain are necessary, but a soft snowfall brings peace to all humanity.
How can I show my gentle side today?
__________________
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss
Loved your analogy of the Snow Flakes, but I live in California. Never, ever do we see them, we have sunny days, almost all year round, it does get cold, and living by the Pacific, when the wind picks up---------Burr.
Gentleness, well that is a good subject. Pray about that kindness, and I have to ask for help, and let that kindness that I wish to show, begin with me, on the inside. Gentle thoughts about those we love, and how we cherish them, and how their Gentleness is the greatest gift that they give me, and just return it tenfold.
Have a lifelong friend that has a daughter that was just diagnosed with a very Agressive Form of cancer, and so aware of the loving gentleness that my dear friend, and her daughter need.
Nothing else, just trying so hard to listen, and Pray for them both, one day you go to work, remodeling your home, have a wonderful job, wonderful Significant other, and life is so good, and then Life just steps in and slams us with this kind of News, our lives change forever, with that kind of discussion with a Doctor. One day all that has been taken for granted, is gone and you are beginning a fight like no other, fighting for your own Life, overnight.
So Carol, don't have any real answers to this question, I just do a Gratitude list every morning sometimes in my head, sometimes on Paper, and that seems to make my day go better.
This just brought me back to my youthful days. I grew up in a ruiral part of Mass. and hunted almost daily during the winter season. Most of the joy was just in the walking though the woods, just being there, rather than the taking of the game. This reading took me to many times when a snow would begin to fall and would make a good deal of noise on the dead leaves of the ground, and also the few remaining on the trees. It was music. Beautiful music. I think back and am thankful that even at those early ages I was able to appreciate the beauty of the symphony it played. Thank you Carol...Tim
__________________
"We posess the eyes through which the universe gazes with wonder upon its own majesty."
Beautiful, Carol. I love reading feelings about nature put into words. Tim's symphony was lovely, these things show us such complete pictures of thoughts and feelings.
I like to use my stream, or often the river, when I want to just sit quietly. I can hear our stream murmering year round, sometimes just the sound of tumbling stones, other times, like today, the rush of so much water from the snows. The river I can listen to when my bedroom window is open at night. Wonderful, easing sounds for sleep.
I find people that are like the river, when it comes to gentleness. I'll sit there and at times, it's just the flow that I find soothing. I'll watch it, thinking that this is a calm day, and then when I look closer, I'll see at certain times that there is alot of action under that calm. If I look deep enough, there's the muddy eddies down at the bottom, debris whipping around rocks. And then I remember that even when it appears calm, we lose people so often to the undercurrents. When least expected, someone will wade out to fish, get caught up in that hidden current, and dragged away. So yes, it is good to find our gentle side to show others, but I'm cautious of the gentle surface, because it hides so many muddy currents.
__________________
"Never argue with an idiot... They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience..."
Wow Wren! What a great and vivid analogy!...I think you and Phil should get together and between his poetry and your picturesque, descriptive writings you could publish a soothing compilation of readings...Tim
__________________
"We posess the eyes through which the universe gazes with wonder upon its own majesty."
What great thoughts and images. I live in the city (Boston) yet still feel drawn towards nature when it snows. The first snowfall of the season is due tonight. I love walking Beacon Hill, part of old Boston, with its gas streetlights and old brick buildings, when the first snows of the season come. The entire city gets a cloak of white that seems make things seem pure and nice for a while. I won't be heading to Beacon Hill tonight, but look forward to bundling up my newborn son Liam in the morning so he can experience his first snowfall.