Winter’s Quiet Starts to Fade

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by Marsha Stopa

The sun is shining for the sixth consecutive day (the longest stretch we’ve had all winter), the temperatures have been dancing into the 40s and 50s°F and much of the snow has melted. It looks like spring might truly arrive.

And one of the things I love about winter will fade away, too.

The quiet.

A thick blanket of snow on the ground is the best insulation to muffle city noise. I hardly heard the traffic, my neighbor’s basement band or the occasional hyped-up car radio. Sleep was uninterrupted by sound.

In just the last few days I’ve heard music blaring from decks, kids whooping on bikes (a welcome sound), bad mufflers and passing traffic as people ease out of their winter hibernation.

I actually enjoy shoveling snow some winter evenings, when there’s little traffic and I’m alone with the empty street, the streetlight, the snow and the quiet. Shoveling becomes a form of meditative exercise. The poetry of gently falling snow somehow makes me feel one with nature.

But the snowdrops have popped up through the snow. As the winter silence fades, I wonder what we would hear if we could hear the stirrings of spring growth.

And you? What do you enjoy about winter?

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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Elly August 15, 2010

I don’t hear any actual increasing noise, but as weird as it sounds, I can feel heightening energy around me as the days get longer. It makes me agitated and longing for fall. It feels worst during May and June. I’m one of the rare people who love winter and actually become depressed during the summer months. It’s something about the heat and the light. I admit that if I stay indoors too long during any time of the year, I get an urge to feel the caress of sunshine, but it feels more biological than mood-based.
What I love about winter is the actual darkness. It’s really peaceful.

2 Marsha Stopa August 15, 2010

Thanks for stopping by, Elly. It doesn’t sound weird to me; I can sense the heightening energy as well. Have you ever tried meditating? I’m wondering if you would be less sensitive to the energy changes around you if your own energy was more grounded. Just a thought.
Marsha

3 Elly August 15, 2010

Yes, I have tried it! :) It did help, if only as a way of occupying myself. There was no hiding from the energy o’doom, though, so my major change was to thicken my bedroom window curtain with a blanket. Haha.

4 Marsha Stopa August 15, 2010

Elly, There are different kinds of meditation, some of which can make you pretty spacey and out of your body. I use a specific grounding meditation for women that anchors my physical body to the earth’s energy. There are times of the year when I have to sleep with a sleep mask because I am too sensitive to light. I’ll spend some time checking this out. Thanks, again.

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