Whoosh, a weather front came through!

 

Early on Dec. 24 during a wet warm day...good to stay indoors!

Then suddenly it started to snow around 9 pm, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees in 2 hours time! This time the weatherman had it spot on. Cold front coming through with maybe a bit of snow after it arrives.

Temperatures kept on dropping.

We didn't accumulate that much snow as other regions in the mountains. 

With all the pavements slick with ice, I was very glad to take photos from behind the storm doors!

18 degrees F on Christmas morning meant my little violets were shivering.

But though it was icy out, it looked like the pavement of the sidewalk was dry....

But unfortunately no-one was spreading salt today (Christmas day) on my steps...which had been wet before the snow hit them. Not planning to go out until something is done to clear them (including the possibility of my wielding a broom!)

The sun is shining a lot of the time, with some clouds giving more flakes of snow sometimes as well. But I think the sun is winning as far as the ground being covered with white.

The snow on roof tops doesn't seem to have enough sunlight to melt, since it's only up to 22 degrees by noon. That's all I had to do on Christmas day...look out these various windows and doors! Well, there was a coffee cake waiting to bake too! And some other yummy things to feast upon...then the big zoom meet-up with my relations! After sharing the joy of the day with various other bloggers - you know who you are!

Today''s Quote:

It's not that you have no choice.
Rather, the 'chooser' is the fiction.

It's not 'you' who chooses or doesn't choose.
It's life itself.  You are inseparable from life itself.

Undivided from the totality.

A star explodes.  The grass grows.  A mother gives birth.
A war begins, ends, begins.  A relationship breaks down.
People come together, fall apart.  An old wound heals.
Hearts open, close, open.
Like breathing.  Like the ocean tides.

We believe that we have a choice,
or we believe that we don't.

The planets spin.  The rain falls and stops falling.
Did we choose, or were we chosen?

Could it have been any different?
Can the rain fall backwards?
Can we un-say what we have said?
Can we un-read this poem?

Choice, no choice.  Those thoughts fall away too.
Into silence.  Into stillness.
Into the vastness of Being.
Into...

Beyond choice or lack of it, you are.

And you take the next step, or you do not.

Or you take the next step
of not knowing which next step
you will take.

And out of the not knowing,
the path becomes clear
if only
for a moment.

And then the Universe
begins again.

Jeff Foster

Sunset

 

I looked up from what I was doing...and the sky was ablaze! Walked quickly out on the balcony and clicked a few pics with the phone...I'm so glad to see the ridge of the mountains in the distance...but everything was bathed in this rosy light!

Today's quote:

Courage is your willingness to not know. 
To speak your truth. 
To walk your path.
To face ridicule and rejection.
To keep going, despite the voices in your head and the judgments of others.
And there are no guarantees you will make it.
Nobody can walk for you!
You walk in radical aloneness, naked in the face of life, no protection, no crutches, no external authority.
No ideology to save you. 
No promises anymore. 
Only the beating of the heart, and the air in the lungs, and the thrill and terror of being utterly free, and no longer numb.
And a knowing from deep within.
And the call of your ancestors.
And the ground holding you.
And the Sun warming you.
And the fragrance of love everywhere. 
And warm tears running down your cheeks.
And this gorgeous vulnerability
which makes you unbreakable.

~ Jeff Foster

Post Script

(This is added after I finished this blog, ready to publish.) Earlier in the day, while fixing breakfast, I had my Omega-3 capsule sitting on the counter, ready to take it before starting my food. I cut up my pear, then spooned 2 kinds of fat-free yogurt in the bowl with the organic pear, heated up a mug of yesterday's coffee and spooned a teaspoon of honey into the mug. Now where was that pill? I looked everywhere. I couldn't find it in the yogurt/pear bowl. And I did the honey last, so I couldn't have taken it with a swig of coffee. Then I looked closer into the mug, and saw a few globs of oil floating on the surface. That had been a clean cup, where did oil come from? Oh no. I must have dropped the capsule into the hot coffee. I was diligent and not wasteful, and tried drinking my fishy coffee for the first half cup. Then my poor coated mouth and tongue couldn't take any more. Threw that out and started with a new mug, coffee and honey!