My Second Winter

A friend asked me twice if I still loved the snow.  I didn’t need to think before I answered “Yes!”  

Before I moved to this country, to experience winter was just an old dream for me, a remote possibility. I had always felt a warm kinship with this season and the snow. Whenever I read stories or watched movies about winter, a sense of belonging would mysteriously course through my entire being. And when I finally came in touch with the season, the magic burst into different pleasant emotions. I openly declared to anyone I came to know here that I loved winter and the snow even though I often found myself shivering and my feet sore from extreme coldness.

Some said that someday the snow would be too much for me and I would be tired of it. That remains to be seen. As an analogy, I reasoned that all my life in the Philippines, I never got tired of the rain, so how could I be tired of the snow when it’s much better than the rain?

This is my second winter here and I still feel the same old affinity and feelings of wonder that the season has evoked in me. It hasn’t lost its magic at all. I still look at all the snow and the bare trees through the eyes of one who is experiencing winter for the first time. I’m still enchanted by the whiteness and glitters of the snow.  I still stand in awe at the sight of snow-laden pines and spruce trees, and other bare trees coated all over with ice crystals. I still love to walk on the snow, to touch it and to feel the snowflakes settle on my face. Yes, I do love winter! 

One thing about winter that has captivated my heart is the sense of remoteness, solitariness and serenity that it engenders. To me, it has the feel of being “far from the madding crowd” as people prefer to stay indoors during the cold, dark season. I revel in going out for a walk in the snow…. just walking, drinking in the exquisite whiteness of the surrounding, reflecting and mentally communing with our Creator, thanking him for his tender loving care.

This winter has showered more ethereal   beauties that I have never expected, a series of winter-related awe-inspiring phenomena  and several  little surprises that didn’t show up last winter.

For me, this is a winter to remember fondly and to cherish!