It is official, we are having a White Christmas! A new, crisp blanket of white fell with the promise of more to come. The world looks gloriously pure from my window. It is like a blank page eagerly waiting for a story. We now also have ‘hard water.’ The miracle of these huge lakes freezing over leaves me in awe every year.
You may think I am crazy for living in places that get as cold as the East Coast and Minnesota do, but I do love winter. It is quite an adventure on so many levels. Even though we had a spectacular blizzard last month, winter temps didn’t really hit until a few days ago. Yesterday morning was extra special with temperatures reaching… down to -23. And that is before the wind chill factor! Those of you living in warmer climes, try not to turn green with envy.
I suspect I am where I was meant to be. I say that with with a grin because being a Southern California girl one does not really expect to be living in a place where there are little houses sitting on frozen bodies of water in the winter months with people drilling holes in the ice to go fishing. Ice in California? We hardly ever even got rain! As I contemplate that I remember my very first job and the very first thing I bought with my very first paycheck. Would you believe I bought a beautiful forest green cashmere wool coat! (Insert laughter here). I mean, who needs a heavy wool coat in Southern California?!
So here I am in December in Minnesota wearing a cuddly red coat (not the green one that died of loneliness so many years ago). I’m standing at the lake’s frozen edge to check out the ice and have a chat with our huge cottonwood tree. By the way, her name is Angelica. Angelica sits right at the shoreline where bald eagles perch on her top branches to spot prey on both land and water. I love watching them do their majestic eagle thing; it is such an awe inspiring sight.
I could see all those miracles in comfort from inside our toasty house, but I wanted to view everything from a different perspective. I stand there imagining all the fish swimming around under the ice thinking how stressful their lives must be. I say to myself, “They search for food non-stop while trying to avoid predators. I say outloud, “you poor wretched creatures, stuck in a world of conflict. “Your days are filled with fighting for survival and the constant scrambling to avoid being prey to those that are bigger and stronger than you.” I am feeling very gratified I am not a fish.
Suddenly my imagination takes its usual turn into a flight of fancy and in my mind’s eye I see a fish suddenly break through the ice and it begin talking to me. Mr. Fish says, “You poor wretched creatures, stuck in a world of conflict. Your days are filled with fighting for survival and the constant scrambling to avoid being prey to those that are bigger and stronger than you.” “I am feeling very gratified I am not a human.”
I that moment, I saw my world from a totally different perspective, courtesy of an invisible fish.
“Dare to turn life on its end and you may find that turvy-topsy is a truer perspective than topsy-turvy” ~ Robert Brault
The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself” ~ Henry Miller
The Soul Speaks in Images 
Thank you for reminding me how beautifully simple it can be to have a different perspective when I purposefully use my imagination!
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