Winter Wonderland

We’ve received lots and lots of snow recently, with more on the way. Unless all the weather forecasts are wrong, I can expect to see big wet flakes falling again when I get up tomorrow morning.

I start early every day on clearing out my driveway, even before the snowfall stops, as it’s easier for me to shovel a few inches several times than it is to shovel the whole thing one time. I don’t mind - there’s a certain stillness in snow falling in the early morning that’s very peaceful, even magical.

I walk the dog mid-mornings, and am usually rewarded with incredible beauty. The snow had just stopped falling one morning just before we started our walk, and everything was pristine white. The sun peeked out for a few minutes, turning everything around us into sparkling crystals.

The crystalline beauty, the green trees, boughs laden with snow, and the blue sky - it was one of those special times. The sun appeared only briefly, but the beauty was all the more special for the briefness.

The sky soon turned leaden again, the magical silence was soon broken by the sounds of traffic, tire chains clanking, on the highway, and I knew I’d spend the afternoon shoveling more snow, if not from the driveway, then from the roof.

But for those few moments, I knew sheer joy in the beauty surrounding me, as my dog and I made footprints side-by-side in our own winter wonderland.

Meeting Ouspensky

My local library has used book sales twice a year. While it’s a good opportunity to buy sacks full of the mysteries my husband loves, I also take advantage of the fact that they often include old, out-of-print volumes and I’ve acquired my own bags of treasures.

One of my recent finds is “Tertium Organum: A Key to the Enigmas of the World,” by P. D. Ouspensky. It’s the second edition and copyrighted 1922, the year it was translated into English. I don’t see a reference as to when he originally wrote it, but it’s clearly been around for a long time.

Ouspensky was a Russian philosopher, mystic, and mathematician, and in this book “he explores religion, science, psychology, and the literature of mysticism in an effort to understand man and man’s place in creation.” I see chapter headings having to do with the “fourth dimension.” Sounds fascinating, doesn’t it?

I’ve only read the Introduction and Preface, so I’m not into the essence of Ouspensky’s philosophy yet. I’ll keep you posted on what I glean from his thoughts.