All-encompassing freedom
A wintry scene near Lake Pinneo in Quechee, Vt. (Gareth Henderson Photo)
As the snow blankets the landscape around us, it embraces its surroundings with a special stillness, an all-encompassing sense of freedom.
Even amid frigid conditions, we’ve all felt the serenity of winter. Its sense of peace envelops the land and all that takes place on it. To see this in action is a joy, including Saturday as we once again visited the trails by Lake Pinneo in Quechee. As the cross-country skis hit the tracks in the snow, they added their own sound amid the gentle silence. A graceful mix of light and shadow danced over many parts of earth’s snowy blanket.
As we go by so many of nature’s splendid scenes, we do so in a world that is struggling with challenges of lack, economy, health, division, and other issues. These can lead us to feeling trapped, like there’s nothing which can settle or resolve these challenges. In truth, embracing and connecting with that feeling of peace is an important place to start, because any productive thought we cultivate within ourselves can be shared with others, even through just a kind interaction. The vastness of peace that nature so easily provides, can be ours to express, too. This can happen even amid political tension and places where ideas of peace and unity face an uphill climb. We can know those more productive ideas have their allies, and that in the end the very peacefulness expressed so naturally in the outdoors is a point of commonality — it means something to all of us.
That peace, that broad sense of good and harmony, isn’t far away from any of us. It’s accessible, its power is immediate, and it’s something we can embrace and cultivate in all our endeavors. Feeling a growing sense of natural peace can start right this very moment, and we can calmly welcome more of it into our lives right now. Like the brilliant winter sun enveloping the landscape, we can let peace, goodness and love surround our hearts and bring us to a better moment where harmony reigns. With that, the daylight in our lives can keep expanding and has more than enough grace to help every heart it touches.
— Gareth Henderson
