Winter Particulars

I can never really answer the question, "Which season do you enjoy the most?" I always find myself in the middle of one season, wanting drastic change, when its cold and depressing out, I want a convertable in the summer. While I am being eaten alive by bugs, and checking the dog and my self for ticks in the summer, I wish I was shoveling snow. I like to think of sitting around a camp fire on a summer night, drinking warm cider while picking out a pumpkin, and the amount school seems just rush past itself in the spring time.
But I guess with it currently still being in the middle of winter, I might find some good in it, holidays are past, school is picking up again and before I miss it I want to catch one particular thing to do.
I was much younger, 12 or so, camping in a cabin, somewhere in the middle of mass, far enough away from much city night lights. Boy Scouts it must have been with, we were hiking at night. It was an attemp to show us examples of navigation using starts and moon shadows,.. and things that didn't require batterys. Being outside in the woods, deep into the woods with much snow fall on the ground is quite exciting for me. It affects light in a particular manner, theres a very cold clean smell, and alot of your attention is put forth in hearing. Winter is quite unique in an acoustic manner. With in a few Hours a landscape of very fresh, fluffy, powdery snow can be very quiet and dead, and you can pretty much hear absloute silence, which is a very special and amazing circumstance to partake in. The snow then changes to a more harder and sticky substance, in which every sound is bounced, loudly and clearly for a much greater distance than durring any other time. you hear globs of snow falling from trees from hundreds of feet away. twiggs breaking, and the strain on trees and other objects flexing. Utterly tiny sounds, you hear with the utmost clarity.
Not being one to meditate much, I find this as close as I have been to, to utter relaxation. You find yourself adjusting your breathing, and listen to little details that your body makes as it takes air in and out. you feel a pulse in places, you become a bit more aware of yourself in this silence...


~Christopher