Snow is falling snow on snow

For the past two winters, Ottawa has suffered from a lack of snow. This week has more than made up for that!

The snow has fallen, and snow upon snow. It covered the cars, the fenceposts, the feeding stations and has wrapped the streets and fields in a soft white blanket.

This is the ideal time to go snowshoeing or cross country skiing (although the latter would be very slow). When you are in the forest, you are alone and it is that silence which is so very profound and inspiring.

Not very far from my home, is a bird sanctuary called Mer Bleu. There are trails and numerous homemade bird feeders that are invariably swarmed by half tame chickadees, bluejays, and the occassional woodpecker. The area is silent except for the thud thud of a woodpecker hammering at a dead tree, or the soft flutter of the wings of the chickadee as they land on your hand or your head! The chickadees have come to associate all human beings as portable feeding stations and will follow you in the woods, calling and flying in an undulating but expectant flight path near you.

I once took my dogs with me as I snowshoed. The Llhasa apso was very fond of his jackets, but far less fond of walking in the snow. He would carefully walk in my tracks and then provide me with baleful glances as if to say "When can we go home!". Walking in the snow is not for everyone!

When you break a trail in deep, soft snow, you invariably see signs of animals such as tracks or even wingprints in the snow. The snow covers the branches which bend down and create enchanted gardens of frozen splendor. The enchantment lasts until a wind dusts off the branches, or the sun melts the delicate lace like coverings and they fall away.

Snow reminds us that although we live in cities, we must always bow to the demands and calling of the natural world. The natural world, in particular snow, teaches us that we are living in a world in which our will or even our desires and attempts to control are, at best, an illusion. I plant my foot and see the impressive print my snowshoe will make but a short time later, it too is covered in snow. We try to make impressions when we live. We build homes, we work, we post on social media as if to say "It is me, here is my print..will you remember me?" Our attempts are like my snowshoe print, they will soon fade away and like the delicate snow on branches, we too will fade away.