Winter is a hate-it or love-it season.  No one kinda hates winter.  It is either a definite hate or love for the season and all it entails.  I love winter but can grow weary of it when spring is tantalizingly just around the corner.

The last week has been blisteringly cold.  Cold wind, cold snow…..lots of cold snow, and more cold wind.  I stepped out early this morning to get the paper from the porch and suffered an instantaneous nose-hair freeze moment in time.  Cold, cold, cold…

The cold is responsible for one of my favourite zen-like moments of the season, the moment where ice crystals develop into ice flakes on panes of glass.

I have double doors on both my front and back entrances to the house.  The first storm door is a long clear pane of glass in an aluminium frame and the inner door is of a more substantial construction.  When I opened the doors to get this morning’s paper, some of the inner warm air from the house kissed the blisteringly cold outside air and formed large crystal flakes on the glass pane of the storm door.

I spent several moments contemplating the beautiful shimmering and architectural forms of the crystal ice flakes on the glass.  A frozen moment in time.  Something so delicate yet so strong that it can only exist in extreme cold with a kiss of warmth.  A moment of purity so cleansing that I forgot about the cold, the newspaper and everything else and was overwhelmed by a feeling of awe to be alive, a re-birth so to speak.

I continued my morning routine in quiet contemplation of the meaning of life, simple treasures and thankful that I can still be positively affected and re-energized by life’s simple pleasures.

There is beauty everywhere and wondrous moments to behold if we choose to let them in.  My life was enriched by a cold moment in time brought about with the hint of a warm kiss.