Today is the first real snow of the year and it is really coming down. The first good snow always makes me reflective and I enjoy seeing natural systems interacting We have about 12 inches on the ground and it is still falling. Temperatures really dropped last night and the creek froze lumpy. That is when the freeze takes place really fast the current piles the ice up as it is forming. I have had the privilege to watch the stream freeze in a number of ways under different conditions. Once it was very cold and still. The water just seemed to get thicker and seemed to change color. There were small ice flows moving downstream in the current. In what was really a matter of minutes the deep slower pools were suddenly covered in a smooth clear layer of ice. Ice out is pretty wild too, but that is a story for the spring. Last night I had the pleasure of watching a herd of four deer come through the yard. They went through the yard like it was their own buffet. They started out eating from the small corn pile I have out by the barn. (They feed me and I feed them) They proceed to work their way through the yard stopping to sample hemlock, then red osier dogwoods, rose bushes, hydrangeas, hemlocks again, azaleas, rhododendrons, hemlocks yet again, and finally the english ivy out front. I always get a great deal of entertainment from watching or observing wild life. I am captivated with they way they move within their environment and how aware they are of everything around them. Of course given my interests, I would never pass up an opportunity to watch an animal or a natural phenomena unfold under the notion that I was learning about or studying the creature or situation. A few years back however I had a revelation that often times while I was studying animals or nature I also had the opportunity to really learn about myself. There are so many lessons to be learned by simple observation of the world around us. Or maybe they aren’t all lessons maybe they are re assurances that things will be as they need to be. Years ago, in period of great turmoil, I would wake up in the middle of the night a complete wreck, and I would go out walking down the Little Miami River. I would find myself considering the fact that many of the trees I was walking under were over 200 hundred years old, that the Native people had canoed or walked under them as well as famous frontiersmen like Daniel Boone. That all these people before me had enjoyed the sweetness of life and that the world continues. There was and is a lovely re assurance that came in recognizing that I was a part of a much bigger system, a continuum I think most of us suffer with the wonderful ability to deluding ourself into believing that we can will control over what is around us. Consequently have a giant power struggle with anything and everything that threatens that control. For me while this is not an easy ting to do, a better approach is to be aware of how I am part of what is going on around me and a part of a bigger system. Keeping that awareness and openness I am much more inclined to be productive, creative, at ease with myself and the world. While this is something that I could and should be doing all the time, the chatter and demands of everyday life are so distracting. The natural world often reminds me of a different way to be. It was something I learned that from the trees and get reminded of when I watch wildlife or interact with the natural systems. This winter I wrote a song called “Gifts†which is posted on this web page. A large part of what that tune is about is dialing in to the world around us and finding those gifts to receive and gifts to share.