Winter Wonderland Wisdom

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand. -Henry David Thoreau

With craggy mountain peaks and evergreens on the hillsides dressed in a confectioner’s sugar-like snow to command one’s attention, it is easy to miss the smaller details of winter in the alpine village of Oberammergau, Germany. Before we embarked on errands in the city center of the frescoed town the other day, I was struck by the loveliness of the delicate designs Mother Nature had etched on our windows in frost.

We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand….and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late. -Marie Beynon Ray

“These Winter nights against my window-pane Nature with busy pencil draws designs Of ferns and blossoms and fine spray of pines, Oak-leaf and acorn and fantastic vines, Which she will make when summer comes again– Quaint arabesques in argent, flat and cold, Like curious Chinese etchings.”      -Thomas Bailey Aldrich

“On a lone winter evening, when the frost has wrought a silence.” -John Keats