A Mind of Winter ?

 

 

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It's been a very strange January..

                                                         

The Snow Man


One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. 

 Wallace Stevens

Stopping by Woods on A Snowy Evening

 Whose woods these are I think I know,
 His house is in the village though.
 He will not see me stopping here,
 To watch his woods fill up with snow.

 My little horse must think it queer,
 To stop without a farmhouse near,
 Between the woods and frozen lake,
 The darkest evening of the year.

 He gives his harness bells a shake,
 To ask if there is some mistake.
 The only other sound's the sweep,
 Of easy wind and downy flake.

 The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
 But I have promises to keep,
 And miles to go before I sleep,
 And miles to go before I sleep.

 Robert Frost

It's a time of year when it's easy to be caught in the grip of a wintry disposition but to help overcome that, today's prayer here from Fr Austin Fleming at A Concord Pastor Comments is a real gem and it also reminds of this...

 

"In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” 

— Albert Camus.

  Ice sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy
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