The first snow of winter has fallen and blanketed the land with clean, sparkling whiteness.

When I woke in the early morning, I could tell that snow had fallen as soon as I opened my eyes. The atmosphere was warmer, the light through the curtains had a different look to it. It was brighter. When I got up and peeked out, sure enough, it was white everywhere.

As I walk past a window I cannot help but glance outside. There is just something special about the first snowfall. Any snowfall actually, if you don't have to trudge your way through it in freezing winds, is very beautiful. Facing winter head-on can sometimes be daunting though.

Fortunately for me, I am in a position at this moment in time, where I can just sit inside and enjoy. I find it rather odd that even though the light itself is a blue/white hue that is a cold light, looking out to it gives me a feeling of warmth and cosiness. I feel the warmth of the house is wrapping itself around me drawing me in to a warm, soft, quiet cocoon. The hibernation instinct comes to the fore. I have a yearning to sit and by a fire and knit; to hunker down and do jigsaw puzzles with friends and  a cup of cocoa; to work on a family heritage album. Of course I have a million other things to do, no fireplace, and seldom knit - but those are the yearnings - the pictures that come to my mind when I look out that window.

When the sun comes out the radiance is blinding. One can hardly face it. But the moonlight brings out the brilliance of sparkling diamonds strewn across the fields. Diamond tiaras marking the pathways.

They say that every snowflake is different. How would we ever know? But if it is so, it makes me think that each and every one is necessary and important to the life flow of nature. Just as each and every person is different, and just as important and necessary as the next for the life flow of humanity.

The coming of the frost each year brings a frozen beauty of its' own. It outlines the edges of things soon to be discarded. It hardens the plant for the coming winter and the loss of part of itself. The plant has the chance to rest and renew for the spring renewal and blossoming of summer, only to die back and do it all over again. Each cycle brings forth a rebirth, expanding growth, beauty and withdrawal within once again. The repetitive cycles make it bigger, stronger and more beautiful.

The frost comes each evening, wrapping itself around the edges of plants, creating a lacy effect on the grasses. During the day the weather warms and the frosty edges disappear, only to creep back during the night.  At the same time I am working at downsizing, going through a fall of my own, sorting, organizing and discarding - one leaf at a time, you might say.

I have sold my other home and am now attempting to put all of my belongings into one nest. Getting ready for winter when I can hibernate and think and renew my depleted energy for the burst of spring growth that will come again as it does every year. Looking out my window this morning as I drank my coffee and watched the day begin, I realized that those frosty edges are showing up in my life as well as outside. There have been moments when events have come to harden my edges and slowly prepare me to begin letting go of life as I have known it over these past few years. It is a welcomed change, but one that has been a challenge none-the-less. So many reminders of past fun and enjoyment that are difficult to let go of without sadness. But I know that the memories shall still be ingrained in my brain for many years to come, and I will rely on those to relive the moments rather than the 'possessions' and 'belongings' that eat up the physical space around me. I need room to breathe, rest and relax. I need time to ponder and space to create a new life - one that is dedicated to the things I have put off in order to focus on the needs of others.

I do not rue the past - life has been good to me and memories of enjoyment and fulfillment are abundant - but now is the time for a new direction. It is time to give a different part of me. A part that has always been there, but never really called upon before. It has been hiding in the background, quietly waiting to be called to the forefront - to take centre stage and be noticed - like the seed that has just been planted. The blossom waits silently and unobtrusively within, waiting its' turn to strut the stuff it was intended to bring on to this planet.

So I will detach myself from those leaves, harden myself up for my winter season, and gather the energy needed for new growth and blossom time. I will take the lessons of the last season and attempt to put them to use in the one waiting ahead of me. I will be the same person, but in an expanded form, and stronger.  It is the cycle of life.

My Taro card today (the Moon) says I must be prepared to venture into the unknown and follow uncharted paths. That this is a time of great imagination and creativity as well as a time of mystery and uncertainty. Well - that little old moon must have been following me around all my life as I always seem to be in times of uncertainty and full of imagination and creativity! Sometimes it is difficult to make a decision on where to start, and hard to focus on just one thing. My brain is constantly working overtime when it comes to creative ideas -- so much so that it can become overwhelmingly mind numbing if I allow it to get a grip and take control of my actions (or inaction). In all honesty, there have been times when the multitude of possibilities has left me at a total standstill, not being able to sort out which direction to take or which possibility to try first.

Over the last few years of my life though, when I have the quiet time to think about it, I have come to realize that if I just pick one thing and go with it as far as I can, and just acknowledge the other ideas that flow through me as notes for the future and thank them for visiting my brain, I can move around the wall of confusion and move forward. A sneak attack, some might say, but it seems to serve the purpose and I can be productive. One thing at a time. And perhaps the thing that helps the most, is the understanding that there isn't just one great idea. They all have merit, they all originate from the same source with as much value as the other, so I do not have to worry about making the wrong choice because there isn't one. One feeds the other and they all seem to combine into one big melting pot of creativity - which is a mystery in itself.

What made me think about all of this, at this moment of time, was the fact that I had just spent a few hours rummaging through past creative works trying to come up with a plan for some archive pages for the website and the fact that I had just spent two days away from my work at a home I have listed for sale in another city. There has been some storm damage that has to be repaired, and there had been an offer to purchase that has not come to satisfactory completion - and I figure that qualifies for the mystery and uncertainty! For me it is just a part of regular everyday life. It will work itself out in the end, and the solution will be what takes me forward to the next place in my journey venturing into the unknown and following uncharted paths. That little old moon follows me everywhere I go.

Heron looking for supper on the Oyster River, Vancouver Island

The heron. Patiently he watches - waiting. He can stand for hours, still as can be. When he has spotted something moving, he carefully lifts one foot so slowly you hardly notice, and replaces it closer to the selected prey. He can spend long, silent minutes waiting - stealthily getting closer. Suddenly he lunges his beak towards the target and it is his!  Trapped within his mouth. Back goes the head and he shakes it down his long, long neck. Success! The amount of time spent watching and waiting is amazing. Even though I am doing nothing in particular that I have to rush off for, it is all I can do to wait until he has completed his task so as not to disturb him. His patience is inspiring - and something I should learn from.

I feel this urgency to hurry up and complete everything so I can get on to the next project. Waaayyyy too many projects in my head! But I know I can only focus on one thing at a time to have it come out successful. Oh yeah - I can multi-task -- after all I am a woman! (How I hate that theory!) But, I can, and I do with a great deal of success as well, I might add. However, when it comes to my own personal creative endeavors I feel the necessity to focus and go slowly, with lots of thinking and weighing of alternatives involved. If I hurry through it I find afterwards I wish I had done it differently and want to redo - but there are too many projects waiting,- can't afford the time to redo! So I try to remember the heron - calm, watchful, ever so slowly preparing for the moment when he gives it all he's got - and POW - success!

Sometimes though, while I have been preparing and weighing, half the world has passed me by because everyone moves at hyper-speed. Scurrying hither and yon - trying to get 'things' done - like an ant running his circuitous route searching for 'something'. Or going around in circles, like a leaf caught in a small eddy of the stream, going nowhere

Eagle resting. Quinsam River, Vancouver Island

Have you ever stopped and watched an eagle in search or food? The eagle will soar aloft until he spots something that looks like breakfast (or lunch or supper) then he swoops down hoping to catch the prey unaware and grasp it in its talons. If it does not happen on the first attempt, it will keep circling and swooping, talons outstretched, from one direction then another, hoping if he tries long enough and often enough, the prey will tire out or become confused. He will make long wide circles before coming back, and then he will make a sharp tight one to throw the prey’s timing off. He will come from the left, from the right, from behind and in front. Very persistently he will do his best. His mind is made up and he follows through with determination. But sometimes he doesn’t get his meal. The prey has outsmarted him this time, and the eagle soars off to new territory to search and attempt again.

From the watcher’s point of view, it seems to me that the eagle uses up a great deal of his own energy on these attempts, and must decide at some point it is only worth expending so much before moving on if he wishes to survive. He searches his new territory and begins again. Sooner or later, he will catch his meal and be sustained, or he will starve to death.

It is the decision point that is hard to put a finger on. Don’t want to quit just at the point when one or two more attempts may bring your dream to fruition. Neither do you want to keep banging your head against a brick wall that isn’t moving. How do you make that decision? What factors do you weigh? The eagle moves to new territory, finds new prey, and uses the same tactics. Apart from the brain and eyes, the eagle only has wings, talons and beak to help him. He has to use the brain he has to either search over land, water, or in the air. There are only so many tactics in his repertoire. He is limited by his weight and wingspan.

Humans have so many more choices, so many more tactical options - and yet are often not nearly as successful as the eagle. We stumble, fumble and get emotional. We get stubbornly hard-headed or we give up and feel we have failed, perhaps get depressed about it. We become attached to the idea of reaching the goal, and judge our self worth according to whether we reach it or not. Sometimes, it isn’t even our goal. It could be a goal set by someone else that frankly, we have little interest in succeeding at. We become someone else's pawn in their game of life - but still we judge ourselves according to our success. So how and when do we decide we have expended too much energy to reach that goal? When do we  draw in our talons and search for new territory? What limit do we reach before we decide that enough is enough, and it is a matter of our own survival now, and time to focus somewhere else?

NASA Photos Explanation: A cosmic bridge of stars, gas, and dust stretches for over 75,000 light-years and joins this peculiar pair of galaxies cataloged as Arp 87. The bridge is strong evidence that these two immense star systems have passed close to each other and experienced violent tides induced by mutual gravity. As further evidence, the face-on spiral galaxy on the right, also known as NGC 3808A, exhibits many young blue star clusters produced in a burst of star formation. The twisted edge-on spiral on the left (NGC 3808B) seems to be wrapped in the material bridging the galaxies and surrounded by a curious polar ring. While such interactions are drawn out over billions of years, repeated close passages should ultimately result in the merger of this pair of galaxies into a larger single galaxy of stars. Although this scenario does look peculiar, galactic mergers are thought to be common, with Arp 87 representing a stage in this inevitable process. The Arp 87 pair are about 300 million light-years distant toward the constellation Leo. The prominent edge-on spiral at the far left appears to be a more distant background galaxy and not involved in the on-going merger.

At night we gaze up to the stars in the sky and find all sorts of interesting patterns and shapes if we let our imagination wander and connect the dots. The bright, sparkling dots we know as stars. There is something rather captivating about night skies that I am not sure I can put my finger on, but humans from the dawn of time seem to have been drawn to look at them and record what they have seen. But when we look at photos from the Hubble Telescope point of view it becomes absolutely awesome!

The NASA Photo of the Day I was looking at in particular this morning was one of two galaxies which have at some point seemingly come in to close relationship with each other. They have tails of stars connecting and swirling around each other. Being that they are so distant and carry on their movements over billions of years, the only way my mind can assimilate this kind of information is to associate it with something I am already familiar with, such as the relationship between two human beings. They live their lives separate for many years, then something brings them in close contact with each other.  They may then separate again forever, for a while, or even, eventually, come together as one unit. In the interval between, they have exchanged parts of each other. Knowledge, actions, emotions; creating memories for the other to take away. The memories become a part of the other person as they grow and expand their life's experiences. We don't actually trade these pieces, merely pass the image or the feeling along to the other person, thereby retaining it for ourselves at the same time as expanding the other person's spirit. It's a sharing that doesn't diminish either side of the equation. We change each other for ever, just as the galaxies change each other's substance by intermingling their "stuff of life".  It is a rather intriguing activity when you think about it. And it is a connection that has me thinking about how I relate to others on a day to day basis. What "stuff of life" am I passing on to the others that I come in contact with?

If your are interested in the mind expanding NASA photos, you can download some screensavers and have access to a description or explanation of all manner of superb sights around the universe.