Sweet Calm After the Storm

There isn't even an inch of snow here in this part of Bavaria. It's been cloudy and rainy for the past month. Now we have about 3/4 of an inch and the waters are frozen. I took the kids out on a nearby pond this morning and we followed the fisher cat and mouse tracks through the snow over and under dead branches and small islands that harbor mating terns in the Spring. They were fascinated with the tracks and wondered if the big cat had caught that mouse or had their tracks merely crossed, one well before the other. We made snow angels and pretended not to notice a curious little bird who circled us, perching on branches closer and closer. She was a sweet little bird and very good natured- I could tell. The river by my house is frozen this year and I am aching to get out on some ice skates while the kids are in school. When I was a child some of my fondest memories are of skating on lakes and in huge old swamps normally inaccessible, underneath the nests of Great Blue Herons, around tiny mysterious islands now vulnerable and exposed. There was no sound but my skates and I felt so peaceful, my mind so quiet. I need that peace and the cold on my face. It was like medicine to laugh with the kids. We healed together today, yesterday's frustrations brushed aside, the slate as clean as the crisp, white snow.