Crystal of New-Fallen Snow

Fresh snow drapes across the landscape in a beautiful display. One of my students told me over the telephone yesterday that she didn't understand why anyone would use the words beauty and snow in the same sentence. For me, beautiful isn't a big enough word to contain all the purity, fragility, and wonder of fresh-fallen snow.

We're covered in newness once again ... rebirthed. Snow rests atop and along tree branches and creates sparkling white-tinged sculptures throughout the forest.

It's a fresh start. And I think of my practice in a similar way while I move today ... as if it is all new. It may contain the same view, the same 20 movements, but it is reimagined each time we practice based on landscape, temperature, time of day and time of year, weather conditions, conditions of body and mind, mental attitude, inner stillness or lack thereof, intention, and expectations.

My little kitten goes back to bed and so, minus her revved up distraction, I watch the sky transform from silver to pink ... blue ... white. A blue sky appears and, eventually, the sun. I continue my movements--soft and slow--as a flock of bluejays arrives and, bird-by-bird, sinks softly into the snow beneath the feeder.

As I float down into Resting after standing quietly in Cosmic Consciousness Pose, I become as light as a snowflake, drifting down, down, down ... landing softly and weightlessly amid the snow around me. I come to Rest gently ... one more crystal of new-fallen snow.