Claude Monet | Ice Floes | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)

Ice Floes – Claude Monet

Oldest Daughter – 09/21/21

…and in California, the winter was not a natural time of reflection for, yes, it was cooler and occasionally there was rain, but it was mostly sunny and warm with clear cloudless skies, which was beautiful and wonderful in a wonderful California way, but it was a beauty and a warmth which did not naturally bring you inside, at least for her, or which paused your life and your mind, and that was good in the memory of her childhood and high school years, but now… Now that she lived in a four-season Midwest state, well the winter and the cold, which were truly cold, at times biting and hurting the skin and the remaining corners of her California mind and soul, the winter and the cold … if you were brave enough to walk within it, or to have the time to be still with hands then warming wrapped around a hot cup of tea, and to sit by windows to gaze out upon the cold winter day, then the cold and the winter provided the time of stillness, and reflection, and moments of grace within the storms and the brittle morning and evening airs, and the tea, the warmth of the house, and if so blessed, the crackling and life of the wood burning fireplace, these things provided comfort and solace, by contrast, yes, with the coldness of the winter, but also just in and of themselves, for the winter and cold and the warmth and the tea became differentiated and distinct instead of just parts suffused into the background, and instead of just a time, the winter here was a multitude of living points upon the canvass called winter… Such as looking into the glory of the clear winter sky night where every star twinkles unto itself and each planet one could see moved along its own course, a display of magnificence, yes, but also and even more a living dazzling nightscape of millions of stars sparkling together, individually, yet arranged to create a unity of life and beauty, awesome and breathtaking to behold … just like the winter here, a oneness made of millions of moments all displayed together … if you sit, and reflect upon what the soul already deeply desires…

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