It’s always a push-pull to go out in the morning when it’s so cold. I love, love, love being out on the labyrinth as dawn slowly turns to sunrise – the mountains go pink and the sky lightens – but it’s very cold outside, as low as -12 on these mornings! To move from sitting under the blanket next to the heater in my cozy warm pajamas into layers and layers and then out into the very cold temperatures is challenging. Once I get out there, I never regret it. It’s absolutely gorgeous even on days when it’s snowing and my view is of blurry whiteness everywhere. But the lure of the warmth inside and hot sweet coffee keeps me in my spot especially if I don’t need to be anywhere early. But I also want to capture and enjoy every single second of being out in this beauty, being in such a different place knowing I’m only going to have this opportunity for a short while. It’s the doing, action-oriented, wanting more part of me competing with the being, observing, savoring part of me.
‘I have a whole lot of living left to do if I step out of my comfort zone and take some risks.’ I recently heard this on a podcast, the speaker was an 87-year-old woman who started online dating and doing improv in her 80s! Inspiring.
I finally got the opportunity to drive into town on my own. The driveway was clear enough so I could get out. I went for a walk around one of the neighborhoods, marveling at the icicles hanging from the eaves – wow! Also was able to walk a little of the Paul Stock trail with views of the Shoshone River- just beautiful. It must have some thermal activity as it was not frozen at all and had lots of steam rising up and ducks happily playing in it.
That evening I attended an art class on color theory and watercolor. It was a great group, all women, many of whom knew each other and had obviously been coming to these classes put on by the local art league for years. They had delicious food – homemade soup, naan bread, veggies and homemade peanut satay. Wow! It was fun to play with color and chat with different people.
I had been home less than an hour when a windstorm came up- it was stronger than anything I remember from Wellington – snow was blowing everywhere and the tree branches were whipping up and down. Luckily the building felt very solid, it doesn’t have old sash windows like the house we had in Wellington. Those would rattle like crazy when we had southerlies. I did manage to fall asleep eventually and woke up to a changed landscape- all of the walking trails I’d carved out over the last week were gone and huge drifts of snow were everywhere, including the driveway. I had to redo the labyrinth- some spots were hard snow I walked on top of and others were soft and I sunk in at times to my knees- what a workout! But always worth it.
I spent time working with the directors on planning their upcoming board retreat and discussing fundraising ideas for a capital campaign. The road got plowed again so they could get out for their planned get away. I had a quiet evening reading, getting halfway through an old movie with Helena Bonham Carter and Helen Mirren, Where Angels Fear to Tread. Like many movies based on English novels set in the 1800s, it got very slow in the middle and I wasn’t up to muddling through it. Maybe another night. The moonrise was beautiful.
