Inspiration

Where does inspiration come from? For each person it's different, but I would venture to guess there isn't a person who's truly alive that isn't moved at some level by the natural beauty of the landscape at times. Especially if they're in a place other than their usual surrounds. I think we tend to take what we see on a daily basis, for granted, or lose sight of the beauty close at hand.

This is/has been a long winter for those of us in the Northern Midwest and Northeastern US. It's been cold and snowy. More so than the last few years. After awhile it's difficult to see the beauty in yet again, more snow. But as I type this, that's exactly what I see outside my window. More snow. It's light today, not the heavy wet snow we've had the last couple of snows. It's not supposed to amount to much. Even so, another inch on the ice already on the walk and driveway isn't a pleasant thought. It makes spring seem so much further away.

The good news is, warmer weather will eventually come, and the ice will transform and become water. Water that flows down the streets and into the fields. Water that soaks into the ground with necessary moisture to feed the flowers and plants that will shoot through the last bits of snow and ice with the hope of more to come. Living in the Midwest offers a literal vision of the cycles of life: birth, death and rebirth, in the transformation of the landscape from one season to the next.

It's still pretty, the snow and frozen landscape. It's nature, doing what it does. Offering the hope of transformation. I find that very inspiring.