It's almost Christmas and it's snowing. Even for Dutch people it's special. After all, It doesn't snow here every year.
I'm totally excited. I love the snow. I love the sound it makes when you walk on it, I love the cool air that surrounds it, the fact that it absorbs all the noises around. I find it perfect. If winter - let it be winter at it's max. I lay in bed and hear the wind and the snow falling, bit by bit, and I know that by the time I wake up in the morning it will all be snow.
So, I take a walk
And I look at things. I love to see what the sun makes together with the snow:
And the lady snow that the neighbors had made:
And how the sea looks like:
And my feet:
And the Zen garden:
And the path:
I love to find the trace mark of cats and little birds feet on the snow. The same way the it absorbs the sounds, it shows who crossed where. Was it a car, a human being, big shoes or small shoes and who parked here over night and drifted off:
As I wrote before; I love the snow. Not that I want to go out for more then hour, nor do I want to be left in the fields. I'm thankful for having a warm house to hide in, which I can look out from it's windows, enjoying the beautiful sight.
My Dutch boyfriend can say without even putting his nose out what kind of snow it is; weather it is "pak snow", that you can lift and keep in your hands, or a crispy snow like today, when the snow of yesterday is soft like a feather, covered with ice, and plays lovely reflections with the sun. Or wet snow, slippery and dangerous, like we had yesterday when we went to Alkmaar and had to watch our steps. The Eskimos have 30 different words to describe snow. My Norwegian friend tells me they also have many words for snow.
I find it interesting how living here connects me with nature. I was born and raised in the city. Though I had the sea for a direct contact with nature and it's changes. As I grew up I learned to fall in love with concrete. Here, among the dunes of north Holland and the North Sea I acknowledge what an important part of my life takes nature. I know we are nature (what else?), and I know that surrendering to this fact makes me calmer. So I keep it as a regularity to go out. Even a walk of 30 minuted will do.
