GOLD in the CLOUDS : Listening to the Silence

No, I didn't dress like this on Thursday and head up a mountain summit. I just loved the image with the quote.

I was walking on this,

bundled up in winter hiking leggings, a wick away shirt, a sweater, a down jacket, a wool scarf and hat, fingerless gloves (it was 37 degrees F as opposed to the 17 degrees F the day before at the same time....around 11 AM), winter trekkers and a pair of hiking socks and one hiking pole. I had a large water bottle waiting for me in the car. No backpack needed as I was just walking in the town park on the bike path and a wooded trail and only planning on walking about 2 miles as I had some errands to run.

Thankfully there was no ice under the snow. No microspikes were needed although I do keep them in the trunk with my hiking poles and an extra hat and gloves.

On my lawn, in the front yard, we have large patches of brownish grass. There's not been much snow except the couple of inches that fell earlier in the month and that the town didn't plow here at the town park on our north side of town which is close to where I live. In December they had plowed a piece of this trail. This time they didn't bother.

I loved being the only person on the trail.

My car was the only one in the lot, although I did see a car parked in the lot next to the town pool but never saw a human being.

I saw bunny prints. I heard and saw blue jays, cardinals, a nuthatch, a woodpecker.

I saw droppings of deer and bunny.

I saw a large hawk circling overhead perhaps looking for the mice or bunny.

And all around me were the trees standing silent.

I only took my phone out to send a quick marco polo to this friend at the very beginning of my walk and then to just snap a few pics. I kept it nice and warm in my jacket pocket.

There's just something about the snowy silence that speaks to my soul.

I was thinking about this Scripture as I walked:

"In Your Presence is fullness of joy" ~Psalm 16:11~

And I realized that while walking on the snow in the silence of the woods with no other humans around me, I did have joy. I did feel like I was in the Presence of God. I'm not one to usually embrace Winter but as I've been retired now from teaching for the last 2 years going on 3, I've learned that there's a beauty to this part of God's creation that I just never appreciated before. I'd rush off to work, run to do grocery shopping afterwards, stay in where it's warm, and do chores and then repeat. When the girls were little I would send them outdoors to play in the snow and they loved it, or as a family we would go sledding at the nearest elementary school where there is a good sized hill, but for the most part, we stayed indoors during the long months of January and February.

I've come to appreciate silence. Especially the silence of a snowy walk. It is in the silence that I hear. I listen to the thoughts inside my head and if they're negative I cast them to the wind. I listen to the things God is whispering to my soul. Listening to the sounds of nature all around me. Learning to have confidence in what I'm hearing.....like the prompting to pray for a dear friend who is struggling with her mental health. To have confidence in just walking on snow and not worry about any physical pain in my cervical spine. Motion is lotion, after all!

To appreciate the way the shadows move across the land and sky when the sun disappears......and the confidence knowing it will return. The sun does return.