Be still.

Breathe in…

Breathe out.

Snow blankets the landscape here in southern Wisconsin with the advent of our first major storm of the season, and it is quiet. Deeply quiet.

It has been for days now.

Certainly, I’ve looked out the window and noticed passing cars, heard their rumbling and crunching during walks, and smelled their exhaust hanging heavy in the air. But they remain just beyond – tucked a layer away from the effortless peace of this newly established winter wonderland.

When the flakes fell on Saturday, I took myself out for a long walk, first bundled to near absurdity (or perhaps practicality, considering the wind and falling temperatures). As I marched my way through space and time towards the lakeshore, I loosened my hood enough for it to drop onto my shoulders, letting snow cake and create a thin ice mold atop my beanie (that would later melt into glorious puddles all over my mudroom floor).
…