depth

i was trying to capture something here besides myself. if you look in the lower left, you can see the end of my jacket, which isn't really the end of my jacket, but where my body becomes submerged in snow.

snow is indeed the ruler of all who aren't hibernating or ensconced in mexico (where a good number of durangans actually find themselves these days). i have spent hours shoveling snow off the roof, and more traversing town in four wheel drive as the roads are still coated with several inches of ice and compacted white frozen flakes. tomorrow we have a parade as this is Snowdown weekend, where we create an innovative festival celebrating the insanity of cabin fever with events such as the bed race (where people pile on queen sized mattresses and fling themselves down an icy alleyway in attempts to be the first across a makeshift line) and the outhouse stuffing contest (i'll leave it to you to surmise the details...). but even as everyone declares how they are "over it", the snow does inspire a deep respect for slowing down, and respecting the way things typically work smoothly and without much of a hitch. as i snowshoed yesterday, it took me an hour to break trail on a loop that would typically take 10 minutes to walk without snow (despite the weight distributing aspect of the webbed shoes, i postholed all over the drifts). but i got a full workout, hip flexors through abs, determination through patience. where i normally might coast through the scene, i got to go deep into my surroundings, in more ways than one. i watched an oak leaf dance across the white landscape easily, and, though we were both out of place in this cold winter scene, i felt gratitude for the novelty of our experiences, the freedom to find ourselves out of place, while simultaneously finding ourselves undeniably engaged and alive and truly right where we asked to be.