My original plans for today called for a trip to see a favorite friend in downstate Illinois. That was before the weather prediction for tonight really sunk in. It’s likely to be a temperature of minus 25 degrees F tonight, with wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees F. (For those of you in Celsius Land, I think that roughly translates to -32/-40.)

Discretion being the better part of valor, I’m staying home to make sure the pipes don’t freeze.

Somebody said that “Life is what happens when you plan something else.”

I was determined not to use the day to knock off some office organization projects that take bigger chunks of time, or to get started on tax preparation. I wanted to give myself the gift of reflection and restoration, even though it wouldn’t be spent with my friend. So, I sat in my rocker and just gazed out at the Winterscape.

We currently have a foot and a half or so of snow on the ground and it is spectacularly beautiful.

What struck me first was the color. The story I always tell myself is that winter is monochromatic and boring. Obviously not so.

I yearned to sketch the scene, but somehow that didn’t feel right. I made a Huggies® collage instead:

I paint my journal pages with water soluble oil pastels and then rub them out with Huggies® wipes to create a surface that I can write on with a permanent ink marker. Yes, these are one and the same Huggies® Natural Care Hypoallergenic Baby Wipes, fragrance-free, of course!

If this image was a large enough file you would be able to see the little embossed teddy bears on the wipes.

I’ve been saving the more striking ones but have had no idea until now what I might do with them.

This is what I see when I look out on my five acres of Winterscape, sans the birds and the fox.

Sometimes we tend to think that nothing is happening in the dormancy of winter. The truth is that a lot is happening.

Nature is preparing for the tremendous growth of spring.

I need to remember that when I might be quick to jump into more activity.

There’s essential preparation in the silence and dormancy of my meditation and journaling time, just as there is in Winter. It’s the balance, and that organic rhythm, that allow creation to spring forth from the depths.

Filed under: Being a Reinventer, Adventures of a Reinventer, Lynne's Reinvention Journey on January 15th, 2009