Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays.

12/17/2008

Snow. Looks like a white Christmas. Iron pot hissing this morning on the wood stove. One final ice storm miracle. On Saturday, I went to the store to get a gasket for the stove. Outside there was a small tree totally covered with ice. The tree had these large clumps of small red berries completely encrusted in ice. As I was parking, a flock of large brown birds descended on the tree. They joyfully began chipping the ice off the berries, and having breakfast. You could see that they were happy and energized as they flashed from one clump to another. There was something very festive about the whole event. I went into the shop, and by the time I returned, the birds were gone.

A single red berry
has fallen
on the frost in the garden.
Shiki
Zen page a day calendar

spinning out of the sky

Cloudy. Melting snow in the hallways at work. Slush under the wheel wells. Salt on the car. Sparks from the snowplow as it rumbles along. Snowflakes spinning out of the sky. Lights in the parking lot reflecting off these glistening flakes as they fall softly to the ground. Yep, winter is the "dead" season.

coffee

Cloudy and six inches of snow. Lights from the snow plow blinking through the curtains in the bedroom. Went out to shovel the walkway, hearty laughter from the neighbor out walking her dog. Snowbanks growing. A sip of coffee.

crystalline pipe organs

Driving in to work in the morning, the hum of the snow tires on the road. The sun rising way to the south this time of year. Walls of ice forming in the usual places from exposed cuts in the rock walls along the roads. They've always reminded me of crystalline pipe organs.

winter

Sunny, and two below zero. Crunch and squeak of snow under foot. Car groaning when starting in the morning. Winter issue of Vermont Life Magazine observed. Deer and rabbit tracks in the snow.
What is your Original Nature,
Snowman?
Natsume Soseki
Zen page a day calendar

icicle

The other day I was walking over to production, and passed by the bird feeder they have there. I spied an icicle hanging from the bottom of the feeder. Honestly, it stopped me dead in my tracks. It had been so long since I'd seen an icicle. It wasn't that many weeks ago that if you wanted to see an icicle you would either have to look in the back of the freezer, or take a trip a long way to the north, or an even longer distance to the south. Yet here it was, ordinary and glorious.
I felt the same sense of wonder I feel in the spring when seeing a rhododendron, or observing a scarlet maple leaf in the fall. The miraculous shining out of the ordinary, it actually seems to happen almost every day.

snow as mother of pearl

A few days ago we had a wet snow that froze overnight. When I was looking at it the next morning I realized the number of hues that can be incorporated in something that is basically white. There were blues, yellows, any number of shades of "white". I realized there was a resemblance to mother of pearl, even though I really don't know much about mother of pearl. Colors within colors; colors within no color. I noticed that many forms of water exhibit the same phenomenon; clouds, icicles, clear winter creeks. I have seen this expressed in art come to think of it. Received a Christmas card entitled "Winter Dream" by Susan Komagai Fink. It shows an icy winter stream colored in aqua, red, yellow, purple; all the colors of the rainbow.

frost sun and shade

There is a season of the year that I never really thought too much about until I was driving home tonight. It is the season when the ground in the morning is coated with frost. It snowed today so we probably won't see much of that from now until spring. Obviously you don't see this during the summer. With the combination of bare ground, and temperatures hovering around freezing, there can be some interesting combinations of frost, sun, and shade. I saw something like this in the back yard the other day.

snow!

First steady snowfall of the year. Lights and sounds of the snow plows on the roads. Whine of the tires as I almost skid through a stop light on Route 7. Dusting of snow on the lawn, like confectioner's sugar. Observed some actual powdered sugar on the floor while eating some of the Christmas cookies Allyn made for the tree lighting in Ira.

clarity

Crystal clear. The Rohatsu sesshin starts today. I read on Space.com that today is when Venus is at its brightest so I went out to take a look. Venus was blazing in the southwest with Spica to the right, and Saturn above. Christmas tree lights on at the neighbor's house. Bright orange embers in the wood stove.

Leaning against the tree,
branches and leaves are few:
A night of stars.
Shiki

Post Script: I found this picture on Google Images of Venus, Saturn & Spica taken on November 10th. It was taken by "Astro Bob." Sort of sounds like a kindred spirit. I went in to tell Allyn about Venus about 6:00 this morning. I didn't want her to miss it. She shuffled out about 20 minutes later and said, "Where is it?" No good morning, no kiss, no nothing.
TSG

Post post script: The Rohatsu sesshin always takes place around December 8th, the Buddha's Enlightenment day. After a period of intense meditation, the Buddha attained enlightenment after glancing upon the morning star; that's right, the planet Venus.

film of ice

Cloudy. Snow tires on the Subaru. Castleton State hockey has started. UPS trucks delivering after dark in the Plaza. Twenty Canada geese on Wood's Pond in Brandon, a thin film of ice.

They end their flight
one by one-
crows at dusk
Buson

waltz

Sunny and calm after a wild and windy day yesterday. Tree branches scattered on roads and lawns all over Vermont. The waning crescent moon waltzing with the planet Venus in the morning sky. Crackling of the paper birch in the wood stove.

If it is true that God became
man, it is also true that man
became God...and so...
you haven't got to borrow from
God, for he is your own and
therefore, whatever you get,
you get from yourself.

Meister Eckhart
Zen page a day calendar

Christmas lights

Rainy. Wearing winter jacket to work. Illuminated Christmas trees near Vergennes. Christmas garlands on a white picket fence in Rutland. Christmas lights going up on houses in Ira & West Rutland