Frost and Stillness

And so the cold weather continues through these bright Midwinter days as high pressure keeps the blue skies and the hard, dry air still all the hours of Sunlight and frost in the silvered grass thicker with each long night. This evening the crescent Moon flashed jewel-hard and bright in the South with Venus nearby an equally bright jewel in the sable sky. On this cloud-wreathed island of atlantic winds, it is not often that they are held back by the weight of the static air long enough for us to experience such extended periods of icy serenity. So going out, again, into the frosty day, and returning to a warm hearth, Time seems slowed to a frozen clarity, a dream-like quality that brings to the Midwinter season a sense of stasis and of the Hearth as a refuge: a bud of light and warmth nurtured for a season yet to come. And I would not hurry it, for I value this time-out as a communion with things that lie deep but are, in a contrary way, unfrozen by the stillness of this quiet refuge from Wind and Rain and the flurry of activity that renewed atlantic winds will bring.